Kushner Brokers Prisoner Swap While the War Machine Hums On

Jared Kushner, the US president's son-in-law, announced on X on Thursday that Washington is "working toward what would be the largest prisoner exchange of the war, potentially reuniting thousands of people with their families." He gave no number. He gave no date. The BBC reported that further details, such as how many prisoners would be exchanged or a timeline, simply weren't given. Russia's state-run news agency TASS filled the silence: two to three weeks.

That's the headline deal after a day of shuttle diplomacy in the fifth year of the conflict. The people who will actually be swapped, soldiers sitting in cells on both sides, learned about their own fate from a social media post by a presidential relative.

The Envoys' Tour

Kushner and US special envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin in Moscow earlier in the day, then flew on to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Dublin. The Dublin meeting took place shortly before 9pm at Baldonnel Aerodrome on the outskirts of the city, under a heavy security presence, and lasted almost an hour. It followed trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates this week that, per the reporting, produced no major breakthrough aside from an agreement to swap a large number of prisoners.

And Putin? He said Russia's position on the war, and its demand for territory, has not changed. The Kremlin indicated it would not compromise on its hardline demands. What he did offer was a short-term ceasefire in a key frontline city. One city. For a while.

Kushner called the Abu Dhabi negotiations "very intense," with many hours of meetings at night and in the morning, and described the Putin meeting as "very detailed and productive." Witkoff said President Trump is "intent on leading the charge to end this war." Another meeting is on the schedule.

Europe Gets a Chair

The other announcement: European nations will be invited into the next round. Zelensky welcomed it. "They will have a voice. This is important for us because the war is in Europe," he said. Kushner put it more bluntly: "We cannot conclude this deal without the Europeans being at the table." He said he stressed the point to Putin, who is "willing to give it a try."

The base facts here are worth reading slowly. Zelensky has for several years been calling for European delegates to be included, and says it makes sense because of Kyiv's longer-term ambition to join the European Union. Moscow has been dismissive of European involvement. So the continent's governments, which have spent years negotiating on the sidelines, are being offered a seat by a US envoy, subject to the grudging consent of the Kremlin. Nobody in the story asks the people who live in the frontline towns whether they want any of these delegations speaking for them.

The War Doesn't Wait for the Talks

While envoys shook hands, the killing carried on. Regional governor Andrei Bocharov said four people were killed and two injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on an industrial zone in Volgograd. Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces struck a cargo vessel carrying weapons and military equipment for Ukraine in the Black Sea southwest of Odesa overnight. Russia said it intercepted at least 146 Ukrainian drones in the northwestern Leningrad region.

Finland's military said it detected a strike on a Russian warship in the Gulf of Finland area and stressed it is not under "any immediate military threat." Ukraine's Security Service has said it carried out the attack, according to Finnish broadcaster Yle. On Wednesday, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania told citizens to take shelter due to drones in their airspace, and NATO warplanes were scrambled.

A Billionaire's Switch

Zelensky also told the European Political Community meeting that Ukrainian units had recorded significant disruptions to SpaceX's Starshield satellite communications service in recent days, affecting the entire front line and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine. A 100mph restriction on the service, he said, limits Ukraine's ability to take out fast-moving jet-powered drones. Battlefield communications, in other words, run on a private company's terms of service.

Zelensky called the prisoner deal a "real result." "Our soldiers will come home," he said, thanking his negotiators. Families waiting on both sides will hold their breath for two or three weeks. The state-to-state bargaining that decides when they exhale carries on without them.