Kyiv – U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff announced Thursday that Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange 314 prisoners during the second round of U.S.-brokered peace talks between the two countries in Abu Dhabi.
Two hours later, the Russian Ministry of Defense released Video of freed prisoners of war draped in Russian flags boarding a bus in Belarus, a Russian ally that borders Ukraine and Russia, confirming the exchange of 157 prisoners from each country.
Witkoff said the two days of trilateral negotiations in the capital of the United Arab Emirates had been “concise and productive” and that “while significant work remains, steps like this demonstrate that sustained diplomatic engagement is yielding tangible results and advancing efforts to end the war in Ukraine.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in Kiev that the trilateral talks will continue “in the near future”.
Press Service of the Presidency of Ukraine/Handout 
In a post on social media, he said the swap “came after a long pause, and it’s essential that we were able to make it happen,” and thanked “everyone who works to make these swaps possible,” including Ukrainian soldiers, praising the capture of the Russians and thus “expanding the Ukrainian swap fund.”
“Without the determination of our soldiers, such exchanges would be impossible. And therefore, every result achieved by our units is what sustains the ability to bring Ukrainians home from Russia,” Zelenskyy. he saidHe added that Ukraine “will continue to work to free our people from captivity”.
The prisoner exchange suggests that the three-way talks, the first round of which took place in late January, are making slow progress on specific areas where Russia and Ukraine can find common ground, leaving the most contentious issues for future discussions.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhyi told reporters as the talks began that “the most sensitive and complex issues, such as territorial issues,” would be left for discussion by the countries’ heads of state.
The last exchange of prisoners took place on October 2, 2025 moving on to more exchanges appeared to have stalled at the end of last year, with Zelenskyy telling reporters in Kiev that Russia had “stopped the process” of the prisoner exchange at the end of January.
“They are not particularly interested in exchanging people because they don’t feel that it gives them anything. They think it benefits us,” he said at the time.