EASTORA REPORT | “Our soldiers will come home.” After nearly five years of war, Volodymyr Zelensky offered those words in Dublin as Ukraine and Russia moved toward what he called their biggest prisoner exchange yet. The promise came with a crucial gap: no one has announced how many prisoners will be freed, or when.
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Speaking Thursday, November 12, after meeting Donald Trump’s envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, the Ukrainian president said the exchange had emerged from two days of U.S.-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi. Kyiv had discussed swapping 1,000 prisoners from each side, possibly 1,200. The final figures are still being settled. Zelensky called it “a real result.”
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The Americans had just flown in from Moscow, where they met Vladimir Putin. They brought another development: Europe, previously kept outside the main negotiating room, could join the next round. Zelensky said European representatives would have a voice, arguing that the continent cannot be excluded from talks over a war on its soil. Ukraine, he added, sees its future inside the European Union.
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Witkoff said Putin had agreed to include the Europeans. Kushner insisted that a settlement could not be completed without them and said U.S. negotiators had made that point repeatedly in Moscow. The Kremlin has not separately confirmed the arrangement. Russia had resisted Europe’s presence at the table during the Abu Dhabi round.
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Kushner described the prisoner deal as a step toward rebuilding trust. “People would like to see this war end,” he said, calling Ukraine’s potential “incredible” and speaking enthusiastically about U.S.-backed plans for its postwar future. Witkoff said another meeting was already scheduled.
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Yet the hardest bargain remains untouched. Moscow demands Ukrainian territory it does not control, while Kyiv refuses to surrender it. No ceasefire or agreement on borders emerged from Abu Dhabi, and the war continues despite the new diplomatic movement.
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For the families waiting for prisoners, however, the immediate question is not where a future border will run. It is when the promised exchange will happen—and who will finally come home.