Russia-Ukraine Talks End Second Day in Abu Dhabi Without Breakthrough as Prisoner Swap Talks Continue
Russia, Ukraine and the United States ended a second day of US-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, November 11, without agreeing to a ceasefire or any broader settlement, leaving the most substantive direct engagement between Kyiv and Moscow in nine months without a breakthrough.
The second day of discussions lasted nearly two hours, according to information from the Russian side reported by China’s Xinhua news agency, and ended in the afternoon local time. A source from the United Arab Emirates told Xinhua the talks would continue to explore ways to promote a political settlement of the war, which is approaching its fourth year.
The outcome matched the pattern of the first day. After about four hours of talks on Tuesday, November 10, at the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental hotel in Abu Dhabi, negotiators emerged with no tangible results, though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the session as “constructive” and “quite substantive.”
A second day, and still no ceasefire
The two-day round was the first US-brokered talks in nine months, and the first trilateral meeting of American, Russian and Ukrainian officials since talks in Geneva in February. The American side was led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Russia sent a delegation led by Vladimir Medinsky, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov attending for the first time, while Ukraine’s delegation was led by Rustem Umerov.
The agenda covered post-war security guarantees, military de-escalation and humanitarian issues, including prisoner exchanges, the return of Ukrainian civilians held captive and the fate of Ukrainian children taken to Russia. But the central disagreements — a ceasefire and territory — remained untouched.
Ukraine has continued to push for a ceasefire and credible security guarantees against future Russian aggression. Russia has resisted the ceasefire demand, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rejected the prospect of a truce, accusing European countries of seeking a temporary halt only to buy time to deploy foreign troops in Ukraine.
Le Monde, reporting from the talks, described the deadlock in stark terms, noting that after four hours of discussion on the first day there were no tangible results and the Russian side remained silent, while Zelenskyy still welcomed what he called a constructive debate.
Prisoner exchange is the one live thread
The most concrete item on the table was a large-scale prisoner exchange. A senior Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two sides had discussed a large swap, although the details would be settled in the coming days and no number of prisoners and no date for any exchange was announced after the first day.
One monitoring group, Ukraine Monitor, reported that an exchange of up to 1,500 prisoners for 1,500 was “reportedly agreed in the nearest time,” calling it the most tangible humanitarian outcome from Abu Dhabi so far. That figure has not been confirmed by the governments involved or by major wire services, and it should be treated as reported rather than agreed until officials confirm it.
The same caution applies to an earlier round of talks in Abu Dhabi in February, which ended with an exchange of 314 prisoners. That February swap belongs to a different round and is not the outcome of this week’s meetings.
The American pitch, and Europe on the sidelines
The US administration was pleased simply that the meeting took place. “We seem to be the only country in the world and the President the only leader in the world that can get the Russians and the Ukrainians to the same table,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Paris on November 9, on the sidelines of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers. Rubio said Trump, who had just suffered a stinging defeat in the November 3 midterm elections, had made resolving this conflict “a priority,” while acknowledging the difficulty of the task.
Witkoff and Kushner came to Abu Dhabi with an ambitious pitch: a new European security architecture that would correct the shortcomings of the old one and better accommodate Russia, a framing that echoed Moscow’s long-standing goal of undermining NATO and re-establishing a Russian sphere of influence in the former Soviet region, especially in Ukraine. The two envoys also raised the possibility of a new European security framework and discussed business and energy deals with Moscow, including the agreement to buy Russian diesel that Trump announced on October 9.
Europe, however, was kept at arm’s length. Representatives of the E3 — Germany, France and the United Kingdom — travelled to Abu Dhabi to speak to the American mediators, fearing Witkoff and Kushner might offer further concessions to the Kremlin in an effort to secure a hasty settlement. “Let the Europeans stay at the hotel!” Lavrov said from Moscow on Tuesday. In the end, the Europeans held separate consultations with Ukrainian and American representatives but were excluded from the trilateral negotiations.
A joint European-American statement issued on Tuesday put the European demands in writing. Brussels and Washington expressed support for “a strong post-war European security architecture and arrangements,” while insisting on respect for Ukraine’s “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity.” Kushner said Europe’s security was a US responsibility, and Rubio assured that the goal was to eventually broaden the discussions “at some point” to include the Europeans.
Zelenskyy, speaking in Copenhagen on Tuesday after landing there, was blunt about the point. “This may not sound very polite, but my job is not to make Trump happy. My task is to do everything possible to involve Americans and Europeans in the talks,” he said.
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Background: nine months of deadlock
The Abu Dhabi round followed nine months without direct US-mediated talks between the two sides. The last trilateral round, in Geneva in February, also ended without a settlement, though it produced the prisoner exchange noted above. Since then, the war has ground on, and Ukrainian drone strikes have cut Russian oil refining capacity by roughly 30 percent, disrupting nine of 35 major refineries, according to industry reporting cited in the Ukraine Monitor briefing.
The talks also come at a sensitive moment in Washington. Democrats won both chambers of Congress in the November 3 midterm elections, and a new Congress hostile to the Trump administration takes office in January. With just two months remaining before that handover, the administration has been under pressure to show progress on a war Trump promised to end quickly.
The diplomacy sits alongside other Trump administration initiatives in the region. Trump said the war with Iran was effectively over after talks with Qatar, and Trump’s Board of Peace has taken a central role in Gaza.
Why this matters
The Abu Dhabi round matters less for what it agreed — which was almost nothing — than for what it showed about where the diplomacy stands. The United States is now openly discussing a redrawing of Europe’s security architecture and business deals with Moscow before the war has ended, a shift that has alarmed European capitals and raised questions among experts about whether the talks are a path to peace or a way to buy time.
For Ukraine, the stakes are immediate. Kyiv wants a ceasefire first, then security guarantees strong enough to prevent a new Russian attack, and it refuses to surrender territory it still holds in the Donbas. Moscow continues to demand the entire region. That gap did not narrow in Abu Dhabi.
For American readers, the talks are also a test of the administration’s central foreign policy claim: that only Trump can bring the two sides together. The meeting happened, which the administration counts as progress. But a meeting without an agreement is not a settlement, and the war continues while the talking goes on.
Latest developments
- The second day of talks concluded on Wednesday, November 11, after nearly two hours, with no breakthrough announced.
- A UAE source said the talks would continue to explore a political settlement, and Umerov said the trilateral talks would be followed by talks with European partners.
- A large prisoner exchange remains under discussion, with details expected in the coming days. No number and no date have been officially confirmed.
- A US proposal to redraw the boundaries of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions — letting Russia claim the full Donbas on paper while Ukraine retains the cities it holds — has been reported as the most consequential and contested diplomatic signal emerging from the process. It has not been confirmed by the governments involved.
- The 9th European Political Community summit convenes in Dublin on Thursday, the morning after the Abu Dhabi round concludes, and European capitals will be watching for any sign that the process is moving their way.
Frequently asked questions
Did the Abu Dhabi talks reach a ceasefire agreement?
No. The two days of talks ended without a ceasefire, a settlement or any announced breakthrough. Russia resisted the ceasefire Ukraine and its allies demanded, and the central disagreement over territory was left untouched.
Was a prisoner exchange agreed?
A large-scale prisoner exchange was discussed, but no number of prisoners and no date were officially announced. One monitoring group reported that a swap of up to 1,500 prisoners for 1,500 was “reportedly agreed in the nearest time,” but that has not been confirmed by Kyiv, Moscow or Washington. A separate exchange of 314 prisoners took place after an earlier round of talks in February and is not part of this week’s outcome.
Who took part in the talks?
The United States was represented by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Russia’s delegation was led by Vladimir Medinsky, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov attending for the first time. Ukraine’s delegation was led by Rustem Umerov. European officials from Germany, France and the United Kingdom were in Abu Dhabi but held only separate consultations and were not part of the trilateral sessions.
What happens next?
The UAE has said the talks will continue, and Umerov said the trilateral sessions would be followed by talks with European partners. European leaders meet in Dublin on Thursday at the European Political Community summit. No date has been announced for a further trilateral round, and no direct meeting between Presidents Putin and Zelenskyy has been scheduled.
The Abu Dhabi round reopened a diplomatic channel that had been closed for nine months, and it kept the conversation going. What it did not do is move the two sides measurably closer to ending the war. The next test will be whether the prisoner-exchange discussion turns into a concrete deal — and whether the talks resume with a ceasefire finally on the agenda.
