Zelenskyy: Largest POW Exchange of the War Is Coming, Russia Refuses to Discuss Sparing Energy Grid

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine expects the largest prisoner exchange of the war launched by Russia. He wrote this after meeting US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Ireland late on 12 November. The envoys had arrived from Moscow, where they met Russian President Vladimir Putin. The exchange was agreed in principle a day earlier in Abu Dhabi and is the most concrete result of a week of talks.

No date for the exchange yet

Zelenskyy called the swap "a real result" and said it would be the biggest since the war began, CNN reported from Dublin. The Kremlin also expects it to be the largest, but says the terms are still being agreed. No date or number has been announced.

The previous swap, completed by Kyiv and Moscow in May 2025, was 1,000 for 1,000. Earlier agreements promised far more: the 2015 Minsk agreement called for the release of all hostages and unlawfully detained persons, while in Istanbul in June 2025 the sides agreed to all-for-all swaps of the seriously wounded and of soldiers aged 18 to 25. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said in October that freeing civilians and people held since 2014 remains a priority.

Russia refuses to discuss the grid

In Abu Dhabi, Ukraine's delegation pushed for de-escalation in the Black Sea and a halt to strikes on energy infrastructure, Zelenskyy told European leaders in Dublin. Russia's negotiators replied that they had no permission to discuss it. According to Zelenskyy, the delegation also heard that "the Russian boss is angry and wants to keep striking." Since the start of November, Russia has hit Ukraine's energy facilities more than 310 times.

Kushner said in Dublin that a deal cannot be concluded "without the Europeans being at the table" and that Putin "is willing to give it a try." Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov, however, said Europeans "must decide whether they want peace or the continuation of the war." He called foreign troops in postwar Ukraine "the recipe for endless war" and set out Russia's conditions: no NATO enlargement and a return of the alliance's forces to their 1997 positions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that European troops in Ukraine would mean fighting on a much larger scale.

Proposal on Kostiantynivka

Putin also proposed an Oleshky-style humanitarian mission in Kostiantynivka, a city in Donetsk Oblast covering the southern approach to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. He said Russia needs five days to clear mines from its approaches. Ukraine holds the city while Russia tries to infiltrate and build up forces there, DeepState reported. During the Oleshky truce, Russia moved fresh troops, armor and fuel within nine kilometers of Kherson, Ukrainian marines said.