The second round of US-brokered trilateral peace negotiations concluded in Abu Dhabi on February 5 with a significant prisoner exchange—157 Ukrainian servicemen returned home in exchange for 157 Russian personnel and three civilians—but no substantive progress on the core territorial and security issues dividing Moscow and Kyiv. The talks, led by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff alongside Ukrainian Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov and Presidential Office Head Kyrylo Budanov, also restored the US-Russia military-to-military dialogue channel suspended since late 2021.
US pushes March deadline for Ukraine peace deal as talks yield prisoner swap
Second Abu Dhabi round produces humanitarian results but no territorial breakthrough as Washington sets ambitious timeline
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