The two sides agreed to a reciprocal exchange of 157 prisoners of war each, offering a rare concrete outcome from the discussions, The Guardian, which monitors the Ukraine war closely, reported.
But Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy involved in the talks, cautioned that “significant work remains” in the weeks ahead, dampening expectations of any swift move towards peace.
Even so, the meetings marked the most substantive engagement between senior delegations from Kyiv and Moscow in months, pointing to a tentative, if uncertain, revival of diplomatic efforts nearly four years into the war.
Thursday’s meeting, which lasted three hours, followed a round of trilateral negotiations on Wednesday that ran for about five and a half hours.
Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said the trilateral negotiations had been “genuinely constructive”, thanking the US and the United Arab Emirates for their role in mediating the talks. Russia’s representative, Kirill Dmitriev, similarly struck a positive note, saying there had been progress and “forward movement” in discussions on ending the war.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, later said the peace talks would continue in the near future.
Both sides sent senior military and intelligence officials to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, signalling a more serious approach than during previous rounds when Moscow dispatched lower-level delegations.
MNA
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