ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Officials at U.S.-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine said Wednesday that the sides have agreed a large exchange of prisoners of war.
“One of the positives is we agreed that we’re going to have the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners, which we’re going to finalize the numbers tomorrow,” Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, said after the two days of talks in Abu Dhabi ended.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back for updates. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Delegations from Moscow and Kyiv on Wednesday held a second straight day of U.S.-brokered talks on ways of ending the war started by Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine nearly five years ago.
Hopes are low for any breakthrough in the first meeting in nine months between the delegations, although U.S. officials say they are determined to revive peace efforts that so far have failed to deliver significant results.
“We are starting the second day of negotiations,” Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service who leads Kyiv’s delegation in Abu Dhabi, said on social media.
The envoys met for four hours Tuesday in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, which was chosen as a neutral venue. The talks, mediated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff, were due to conclude later Wednesday.
The context of the negotiations has changed since the last meeting in February in Geneva. The Trump administration has to reckon with Democrats, who could demand more support for Ukraine, taking over the U.S. Congress in January following the U.S. midterm elections.
Also, Russia’s wartime economy is under heavy strain, and Ukraine is reeling from devastating aerial attacks on its power grid.
Umerov said that Wednesday would begin with three-way talks involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States, with Kyiv’s delegation meeting afterwards with European officials.
Moscow doesn’t want European countries, which are concerned about Russia’s conduct and broader intentions on the continent, involved in the direct negotiations. However, representatives of European governments, the European Union and NATO were in Abu Dhabi and were consulting with the Ukrainian delegation, officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday’s session was “constructive and quite substantive.”
The talks were largely about humanitarian issues, including possible prisoner exchanges and returning Ukrainian civilians in captivity, as well as children taken from the country, he said.
Security guarantees also were discussed, he said. However, Russia and Ukraine have shown no sign of a willingness to compromise on their demands.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the meeting “very productive,” while cautioning that a breakthrough on stopping the war will take time.
The Abu Dhabi talks are being held against the backdrop of continued fighting on the front line, where little territory has changed hands this year.
Meanwhile, both countries are battering each other with long-range missiles and drones.
Overnight, Russia struck the southern Zaporizhzhia region and the eastern city of Kharkiv, wounding seven civilians and damaging property.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 627 Ukrainian drones overnight, 150 of them over the region around St. Petersburg, according to the regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko.
He said that the drones started a fire at the port of Ust-Luga, one of the main facilities for Russian oil exports, injuring three workers.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Rustem Umerov, Head of Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, third from the right, speaks during the coordination meeting before the trilateral talks between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the US in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri,Pool)
United States envoy Steve Witkoff, right, speaks during the coordination meeting before the trilateral talks between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the US in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri,Pool)
United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, left, speaks to United States envoy Steve Witkoff during the trilateral talks between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the U.S. in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, Pool)
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Pope Leo XIV will wrap up his visit to Argentina with two poignant moments on Wednesday — a meeting with inmates at a prison with a history linked to the country’s military dictatorship, and a final Mass at Argentina’s national shrine.
Both sites have important sentimental connections to Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis. But Leo's final Argentine stops will pale in comparison to the emotional highlight of his South American trip, when he returns home later Wednesday to Peru.
A massive national party is planned to greet Leo, who spent more than two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru and holds dual citizenship in the United States and Peru. He's known to Peruvians as Padre Robert and beloved for ministering to poor communities, especially in times of crisis.
In Buenos Aires, Leo visited Devoto Prison, where Francis often ministered as the city’s archbishop, celebrating Mass, going into cellblocks housing inmates with AIDS and washing prisoners’ feet during the annual Holy Week ritual.
The prison, inaugurated in 1927, is undergoing its definitive closure and transfer of its more than 1,000 inmates to a new penitentiary complex. Only about 75 prisoners were on hand for Leo’s visit, chosen primarily because they were active in the prison’s religious programming, said the prison chaplain, the Rev. Matías De Martini.
Wearing identical white uniforms, they sat in rows in the prison gymnasium, facing a stage bearing the flags of Argentina and the Holy See, and a statue of the Virgin of Luján, which Francis had gifted to the prison during his years as archbishop.
“When he was a pope he sometimes used to say ‘Whenever I go to prisons I always think why them and not me,’” recalled the prison chaplain, the Rev. Matias de Martini. “This is what he always used to say here.”
“Everything he recounted as pope is what he experienced in this prison,” he said.
The prison is grim and shows its age. Its corridors were dank, and harsh fluorescent light glinted off the worn bars dividing each wing. Red fire extinguishers lined the main hallway, and guards stood at attention, some holding plastic riot shields.
During the last military dictatorship (1976–1983), it functioned as a clandestine detention and torture center and was designated as a Memory Site in 2012, to ensure the military repression isn't forgotten.
Human rights activist lawyers have petitioned the courts to prevent any decision involving the sale or disposal of the prison’s land and facilities once all inmates are transferred, saying “the space must be preserved until the investigations regarding the crimes against humanity that occurred” there are finalized.
In 1978, during Argentina’s military dictatorship, 65 inmates held on ordinary criminal charges were killed at Devoto in what became known as the Seventh Pavilion Massacre. The military government described the killings as a riot and covered them up. Decades later, Argentine courts ruled that the deaths were an act of state violence.
Nearly a half-century later, in December 2025, a federal court found that 153 inmates had been tortured, including the 65 who died in a fire that broke out as guards violently cracked down on the prisoners, and called the events grave human rights violations. It sentenced two former prison chiefs, Juan Carlos Ruiz and Horacio Martín Galíndez, to 25 years in prison. Both men were over 90.
Leo has carried on Francis’ practice of meeting inmates on his foreign trips, reminding them that they aren't alone and remain beloved children of God. Leo's last such visit, to a prison in Equatorial Guinea, produced some of the most chilling moments of his pontificate, when inmates were forced to sing and dance for him in pouring rain.
After the prison visit, Leo will make a pilgrimage to the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Luján, dedicated to Argentina’s patron saint.
The municipality of Luján, about 72 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires, urged pilgrims to arrive days in advance because of the sheer scale of the event and the extensive security and logistical deployment.
The basilica hosts one of the greatest demonstrations of faith and religious devotion in Argentina. Each October, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims walk there from Buenos Aires and other nearby towns to give thanks or make requests to the Virgin of Luján, to whom Francis was particularly devoted.
This year’s pilgrimage took place under persistent rain. And yet more than 2.8 million people took part, a record for the shrine, municipal authorities said.
During the Mass in Luján, the bread and wine will be carried to the altar by community volunteers, among them Sara Ramírez, who works with young people in a poor neighborhood in Santa Fe province where she said hundreds of families lack drinking water.
“With these hands that I use to show my brothers and sisters that it’s possible to get ahead, I'll bring the offerings to the pope,” she said.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV watches folk dancers during a youth prayer vigil at Monumento de los Españoles in Buenos Aires, on the fifth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Faithful hold candles and rosary beads during a youth prayer vigil with Pope Leo XIV at Monumento de los Españoles in Buenos Aires, on the fifth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV, flanked by Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, left, holds a candle during a youth prayer vigil at Monumento de los Españoles in Buenos Aires, on the fifth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV waves to faithful as he arrives to lead a youth prayer vigil in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
