Zelensky hails ‘real result’ in breakthrough on Russian peace as soldiers to return home

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has praised the agreement for a prisoner exchange with Russia. He also hailed progress on Europe joining negotiations with Russia and the US.

The Ukrainian leader spoke to members of the media alongside US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Thursday evening, after discussions which lasted almost an hour at Baldonnel Aerodrome, on the outskirts of Dublin.

Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner described "very intense" talks with Russia and its president Vladimir Putin in recent days and pledged to work hard to reach US President Donald Trump's goal of ending the war.

Mr Zelensky said there will be "the biggest exchange of war prisoners". He said, "Our soldiers will come home."

"I'm very thankful to all our negotiators. This is a real result, this is very important and successful for the families and to all of us that people will come home to their families," he said.

Mr Zelensky also welcomed the progress to include European representatives at negotiations next week. "They will have a voice. This is important for us because the war is in Europe," he said.

US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Mr Kushner, described the negotiations involving Russia in Abu Dhabi as "very intense" and said he had a "very detailed and productive" meeting with Mr Putin and his negotiating team.

He said: "We were able to finalise on the prisoner of war exchange, which is a very important thing. A lot of people are being impacted by this war, and to return these thousands of people to their families I think will be a very nice milestone to achieve.

"We've also been working very, very closely over the past several months with Europeans, and I think that that's been very important. We cannot conclude this deal without the Europeans being at the table … and I think that we're able to achieve that with President Putin."

Mr Witkoff said President Trump is "intent on leading the charge to end this war".

"We've got another meeting on the schedule, and we're all going to work very, very hard to get to that goal," he said.

The Ukraine war dominated a major political summit in Dublin on Thursday as Mr Zelensky warned European leaders of Russia's desire to reshape the security framework of the continent.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the EU is "potentially in a process" on negotiations in finding a peace agreement in Ukraine.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said UK national security adviser Jonathan Powell would join the Ukrainian president for the talks with Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner. However, Downing Street later said the meeting was delayed and he would no longer be able to attend.