Warring sides change 157 prisoners of struggle every however fail to interrupt impasse on bringing Russia’s struggle to a detailed.
Ukraine and Russia have concluded a second day of United States-brokered negotiations within the United Arab Emirates with out attaining a breakthrough in the direction of ending Russia’s struggle.
The 2 sides agreed to every hand over 157 prisoners of struggle with officers from Ukraine and the US in addition to Russia’s Ministry of Defence confirming on Thursday that the change had taken place.
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US particular envoy Steve Witkoff – who led the American mediation group alongside Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law – stated that whereas “vital work stays” in peace negotiations to finish the struggle, the prisoner swap confirmed that “sustained diplomatic engagement is delivering tangible outcomes and advancing efforts to finish the struggle in Ukraine.”
Progress was additionally reached in the direction of strengthening US-Russian engagement. In keeping with the US army’s European Command, the 2 sides agreed to re-establish high-level military-to-military dialogue, which has been suspended since 2021.
The channel “will present a constant military-to-military contact because the events proceed to work in the direction of a long-lasting peace”, the European Command stated in a press release.
Earlier than Thursday’s session concluded, Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev informed state media: “Issues are transferring ahead in an excellent, constructive path.” He additionally stated energetic work was below solution to restore Russia’s relations with the US, together with inside the framework of a US-Russia working group on the financial system.
Nonetheless, he criticised what he described as makes an attempt by European nations to “disrupt” and “meddle” within the course of.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remained cautious, saying Ukraine would stay “as constructive as potential” regardless that the method is “actually not simple”.
“We would like quicker outcomes,” he added throughout a information convention in Kyiv alongside visiting Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The first spherical of trilateral negotiations passed off in late January however appeared to make little progress on the important query of territory. Moscow is demanding Kyiv cede a fifth of the Donetsk area that it nonetheless controls, which Zelenskyy’s authorities is refusing to do.
Prisoner change deal
The Russian state information company RIA reported that Russia and Ukraine exchanged 157 prisoners of struggle every, citing the Defence Ministry. Three civilians from the Kursk area have been additionally returned to Russia.
Among the many Ukrainians launched have been 19 “who have been illegally sentenced, 15 of them to life imprisonment,” in line with Zelenskyy’s aide Kyrylo Budanov. Seven of these freed are civilians, the Ukrainian parliament’s commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, stated.
Photographs shared by Zelenskyy on X confirmed a number of of the newly launched prisoners with shaved heads and cloaked in Ukrainian flags.
The change marked the primary such settlement between the 2 nations in a number of months. The final time Moscow and Kyiv performed a prisoner swap was on October 2 as a part of agreements made throughout three rounds of direct negotiations held in Istanbul earlier that 12 months.
Thursday’s talks got here earlier than the struggle’s four-year anniversary on February 24. In a uncommon disclosure of battlefield losses, Zelenskyy estimated this week that 55,000 Ukrainian troopers have been killed since Russia’s 2022 invasion. He added that 1000’s extra stay lacking and it was the staggering human toll that had introduced either side to the negotiating desk.
Continued assaults
Even because the swap was being finalised, the violence continued. In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko stated an in a single day Russian drone assault wounded two aged ladies and broken residential buildings, an workplace block and a kindergarten.
Ukraine’s air drive stated Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 183 drones at Ukraine in a single day and air defences shot down 156 of the drones.
A person was additionally harm within the surrounding Kyiv area, the regional governor stated.
The strike was half of a bigger Russian marketing campaign that’s concentrating on Ukraine’s energy grid throughout the coldest weeks of winter.
On Wednesday, Russian forces shelled Ukraine’s japanese metropolis of Druzhkivka, killing not less than seven individuals at a crowded market.
The assault, utilizing cluster munitions, focused the market throughout a sometimes busy time on Wednesday morning, Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin stated. Fifteen individuals have been injured, he stated. The oldest sufferer was 81.
