Delegations from both countries met in Abu Dhabi, along with mediating US envoys. At the end of Thursday's talks, the countries announced that they had handed over 157 prisoners of war each in the first prisoner exchange since October.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a press conference in Kyiv after the meeting that he wants to see faster steps toward ending the war, according to AFP.
It is certainly not easy, but Ukraine has been and will remain as constructive as possible.
The country's chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, who described the talks as "substantive and productive," said on X that it had been agreed to continue trilateral talks in the "coming weeks."
Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriyev told state-run Tass ahead of Thursday's talks that progress was being made, but he accused European countries of trying to "disturb the process."
The entire region
The Russian side has so far presented it as if it is up to Ukraine whether a solution is reached. President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Wednesday that until then Russia's military operations would continue.
Russia is reportedly insisting that Ukraine cede the entire Donbas region, which is largely under Russian occupation. Russian forces are advancing on the front line, but at a slow pace and with heavy losses.
The US has reportedly proposed freezing the front line where it is. On Thursday, Russian state media reported that Russia is demanding that “all countries” recognize Donbas as Russian in the legal sense, which would raise the stakes.
Guarantees
The other big question is what security guarantees Ukraine will receive to prevent Russia from attacking again in the future. One proposal, reported by the Financial Times, is that Ukraine's allies in Europe would be deployed if violations occur - and that the US would step in if these continue after three days.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was in Kyiv on Wednesday and described the proposed guarantees as “rock-solid.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has reiterated that foreign forces in Ukraine would be considered legitimate military targets, without specifying whether that would also apply in peacetime.
In the Russian propaganda newspaper Izvestia, selected voices say that NATO's presence in Ukraine "will inevitably lead to future attempts at revenge."
