Abu Dhabi results: Russia and Ukraine agreed on a major prisoner exchange, Vitkoff and Kushner are flying to Putin tomorrow.
Russia and Ukraine have agreed on a major prisoner exchange. This was announced by the head of the Russian delegation Medinsky after two days of negotiations in Abu Dhabi; Details were promised to be published later. This is the first negotiation between Russia and Ukraine in 9 months.
General of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Zorin was also in the Russian delegation. According to him, the exchange may take place in the next two or three weeks and will become one of the largest, more than 1,000 people from each side. The day before, Zelensky said they were discussing options of 1,000 to 1,000 or 1,500 to 1,500.
Medinsky named security in Europe as the main issue of the negotiations. According to him, the system that operated in Europe after World War II works very poorly and needs to be completely overhauled. He himself referred to the documents that Russia sent in 2008 and 2021.
In December 2021, the Kremlin demanded that NATO return to the 1997 borders. According to the New York Times, the Americans wanted to see if Moscow would become more accommodating if invited to discuss the future security arrangement in Europe. This issue is convenient for the Kremlin. This allows you to raise old demands to NATO again and not talk about a ceasefire, which Putin refuses.
Regarding the territories, Medinsky said that every centimeter of Russian land will be returned to Russia in one way or another. Russia demands that the Ukrainian army withdraw from the entire Donetsk region. Budanov was asked whether Russia insisted on this in Abu Dhabi. He replied that the content of the negotiations is not revealed until there is a result. Arhamiya called this negotiation one of the most difficult and said that the Russian delegation came with strict instructions.
The Europeans were also in Abu Dhabi, but the Russian delegation, according to Medinsky, did not communicate with them. He said he did not understand what their status was there.