Trilateral talks involving Russia, the United States and Ukraine concluded on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with Russia and Ukraine reaching an agreement on a "large-scale" prisoner exchange.

While the agreement marked a tangible outcome of the two-day discussions, no agreement was announced on a ceasefire, territorial disputes or long-term security guarantees.

Officials' reactions to the progress

Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation, said the delegations had discussed humanitarian issues, with the future of European security being a central focus of the US-mediated talks.

He added that the parties had reached understandings on some issues, without providing further details.

Medinsky called for a fair security framework that takes into account the interests of all countries, arguing that the conflict in Ukraine had exposed shortcomings in Europe's security system.

Jared Kushner, a member of the US negotiating team, told reporters that the discussions were thorough and covered all major issues, describing them as a good first step forward.

He noted that the prisoner exchange deal was one of the positive outcomes of the negotiations, with the exact number of prisoners to be finalized on Thursday.

On the Ukrainian side, negotiator David Arakhamia, chairman of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, a Ukrainian political party, said the talks had generated "good momentum" toward finding a solution to the conflict before the end of the year.

Expert sees no significant breakthrough

Chen Yu, the deputy director of the Eurasia Institute at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the most notable feature of this round of talks is that it brought European security, an issue of great concern to Russia, to the table.

Chen said that, despite covering a broader range of issues and going into greater depth this time, the talks had not resolved several structural disagreements among the three parties. 

On European security, the United States has proposed reviving the NATO-Russia Council, a joint diplomatic forum established to manage security cooperation and dialogue between the two. Russia, however, is calling for a new European security architecture in which Russia and the West have equal standing, Chen observed.

Under Moscow's proposal, NATO should not be playing a leading role in this framework. The frameworks should instead address what Russia perceives as security threats posed by NATO, according to Chen. Europe holds a different stance on the matter and insists that NATO should retain its central role in Europe's security architecture, he added. 

"Clearly, there are still significant differences between the parties," Chen noted. 

On the security guarantees for Ukraine, the country is seeking credible and effective guarantees, including concrete plans for military deployments, as well as military equipment and financial support, while Russia wants Ukraine to place limits on the size of its armed forces, Chen pointed out. 

Following the trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, Kushner and US envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow on Thursday for talks with Putin. They ​are expected to ​raise the ⁠question of adding European partners to the talks. Kushner has said they ​must be at the table.

The US negotiators ​then ⁠plan to fly to Ireland to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is due to ⁠attend a ​meeting of European leaders there.

(With input from Xinhua)