Zelenskiy: Preparations underway for the largest prisoner swap in history with Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced that preparations are being made to carry out the largest prisoner-of-war swap with Russia to date. In his statement to the press after meeting with US President Donald Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Ireland's capital Dublin, Zelenskiy said this swap would be the largest exchange ever carried out between the two countries.

The development came after the trilateral talks that the Russian, Ukrainian and US delegations completed in Abu Dhabi on 11 November. Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, who headed the Russian delegation, confirmed after the talks that agreement had been reached on a large-scale prisoner swap. Aleksandr Zorin, deputy head of the Russian General Staff's Information Directorate, said the exchange could be carried out within 2-3 weeks.

Before the Abu Dhabi talks, Zelenskiy had stated that the option of exchanging 1,000 POWs from each side, or even 1,500 each, was being evaluated. Kushner also confirmed that agreement had been reached on the largest humanitarian prisoner swap, but said the exact numbers still needed to be clarified.

Europe's participation in the process was also on the agenda of the Dublin meeting. Kushner said the agreement could not be concluded without the Europeans at the table, and that he had conveyed this message to Putin as well. Before Dublin, Witkoff and Kushner had also met with Putin in Moscow.

Although consensus has been reached between the parties on the prisoner swap, no final agreement on a ceasefire and a permanent peace deal has yet been announced. Zelenskiy stressed that every meeting must produce concrete results and bring the parties closer to a solution.