US envoys are set to meet with the Ukrainian and Russian presidents following two days of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi, which concluded on November 11, as Moscow and Kyiv exchanged drone attacks overnight.
Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on November 12, Kushner told reporters after two days of talks in Abu Dhabi. He added that they would then travel to Dublin to brief Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The second day of trilateral talks in the capital of the United Arab Emirates ended after a little less than two hours.
Speaking shortly after the end of the negotiations, the first face-to-face meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials since February, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, announced a new “large-scale” prisoner exchange between Moscow and Kyiv.
“We have reached an agreement in principle on a new large-scale prisoner exchange. The specific details will be announced in the near future,” he told Russian journalists in Abu Dhabi.
Zelenskyy, speaking in Dublin later on November 11, told a news conference that Ukraine hopes concrete results in talks on resolving the war with Russia could be achieved this year, but that much depends on how the United States approaches Moscow.
“We are living through these massive attacks. Of course, we want to get results by the end of this year, and of course, we will be doing everything to make that happen,” he said.
Much depends, he added, on “the will of American side to pressure on Russia or not; it depends on format of their dialogue with Russians.”
The talks came as the White House renewed efforts to break the deadlock over Europe’s largest and bloodiest land war since World War II.
Germany, France, and Britain — the so-called E3 — were participating, alongside Italy, NATO, the European Union, and Ukraine, in the talks. However, their consultations with US representatives have been separate from the trilateral negotiations with Russia.
Ukraine said earlier on November 11 its team would meet with European and US envoys once the talks with Russia had finished.
Amid the talks, Russia continued its attacks on Ukraine, leaving the south-central Ukrainian city of Kryviy Rih partially without electricity and heating following a drone strike, local authorities reported.
Apartment buildings, schools, and kindergartens were damaged, said Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Kryviy Rih defense council.
Russia attacked six major Ukrainian electricity facilities in four regions overnight, Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskiy reported on November 11. Railway infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions was also targeted, he added.
Meanwhile, 150 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia’s Leningrad region overnight, regional Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko wrote in a post on Telegram.
Several drones struck the port area of Ust-Luga, home to Russia’s largest energy and oil export hub on the Baltic Sea, causing a fire and injuring three workers, according to Drozdenko.
In a separate attack, two people were killed when drone debris struck an apartment building in Russia’s Smolensk region, which borders Belarus, according to regional authorities.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported on November 11 that its air defense forces had intercepted and destroyed 627 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The Ukrainian military did not immediately confirm the attacks in Russia.
