Abu Dhabi Talks End With a Prisoner Swap Deal and No Ceasefire as Russia Hits Six Substations

Two days of U.S.-mediated talks produced a prisoner exchange still to be sized, while attacks continued on Ukraine's power network and Russia's oil infrastructure.

Russia and Ukraine agreed to a large prisoner exchange at U.S.-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi, U.S. envoy Jared Kushner said Wednesday, Nov. 11. The two-day round, the first trilateral meeting since February, ended with no ceasefire announced.

Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky and Ukrainian lead negotiator Rustem Umerov confirmed the planned swap. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the sides considered exchanging 1,000 or 1,500 prisoners of war each. The numbers will be finalized Thursday, per Kushner.

Postwar security arrangements for Ukraine and Europe were a central focus, Medinsky told reporters. "In some places we reached an understanding, in other places we did not."

Kyiv wants hostilities ended and security guarantees in place before discussing a European security framework, a Ukrainian delegation source told AFP. Russia wants the reverse, the source added.

Ukraine also rejected a U.S. proposal to redraw Donetsk and Luhansk administrative boundaries along the current front line, a Ukrainian source close to the negotiations told The Telegraph. The plan would let Moscow claim the entire Donbas without capturing the Ukrainian-held cities it seeks, the paper reported.

Moscow sees no reason to include Europeans, Medinsky said. Umerov announced separate consultations with European officials.

Neither side paused its long-range campaign for the talks. Russian forces struck six large electricity substations in four central Ukrainian regions overnight into Nov. 11, along with railways in the east and center, according to Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi. Russian jet drones hit a Naftogaz facility in Dnipropetrovsk region, causing a fire and equipment damage, the company said.

Ukrainian drones started a fire at the Baltic oil-export port of Ust-Luga and injured three workers, Leningrad Gov. Aleksandr Drozdenko confirmed. He claimed air defenses shot down 150 drones over the region.

Ukrainian attacks since late October disrupted refineries holding about 30% of Russia's primary refining capacity, two industry sources told Reuters on Nov. 10. That is about 300,000 metric tons a day, or 2.2 million barrels. The sources put the actual cut in crude processing at up to 200,000 tons a day, with nine of Russia's 35 major refineries disrupted over the past week.

Kushner and Steve Witkoff fly to Moscow on Thursday, Nov. 12, to meet Vladimir Putin, then to Dublin to meet Zelensky.