KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The U.S. and Russia agreed Thursday to resume high-level military dialogue for the first time in more than four years, another sign of warming relations between the two countries since President Donald Trump returned to office and sought to end the war in Ukraine.
High-level military communication was suspended in late 2021 as tension between Moscow and Washington rose ahead of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Trump then campaigned for a second term on promises to quickly end the fighting. Many of his peace proposals have heavily favored the Kremlin, including calling for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia.
The restored communication channel “will provide consistent contact between the militaries as the parties continue to work toward a lasting peace,” US European Command said in a statement. The agreement emerged following a meeting between senior Russian and American military officials in the UAE capital.
US General Alexus Grynkewich, who is the commander in Europe of both US and NATO forces, was in Abu Dhabi, where talks between US, Russian and Ukrainian officials on ending the war entered a second day.
Meanwhile, Moscow has escalated its attacks on Ukraine’s power grid in an apparent effort to deny power to civilians and weaken public support for the fight, as hostilities continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line snaking through eastern and southern Ukraine.
An effort to ease tensions
The resumption of the military hotline marks an effort to ease tensions that have risen since the start of the war and avoid collisions between Russian and American forces.
In one such incident in March 2023, the US military said it ditched an Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone in the Black Sea after a pair of Russian fighter jets dropped fuel on it, and then one of them struck its propeller while flying in international airspace.
Moscow has denied that its warplanes shot down the drone, claiming it crashed while making a sudden maneuver. The Kremlin said its aircraft was reacting to a violation of the no-fly zone that Russia has established in the area near Crimea.
Moscow has repeatedly raised concerns about intelligence flights by U.S. and other NATO aircraft over the Black Sea, and some Russian officials have charged that U.S. surveillance flights helped gather intelligence that allowed Ukraine to strike Russian targets.
NATO members were increasingly concerned about intrusions into allied airspace. Some European officials described the incidents as Moscow testing NATO’s response.
In September, a swarm of Russian drones flew into Polish airspace, prompting NATO jets to rush to intercept them and shoot down some of the devices. It was the first direct meeting between NATO and Moscow since the full-scale invasion. Later that month, NATO jets escorted three Russian warplanes out of Estonian airspace.
Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners following talks
The delegations from Moscow and Kiev were joined in Abu Dhabi on Thursday by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, who was present at the meeting.
They were also at the talks last month, at the same venue where the Trump administration is trying to steer Russia and Ukraine toward a deal.
Officials have not provided any information on any progress in the talks.
Following Thursday’s talks, however, Russia and Ukraine said they had carried out a prisoner exchange.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had brought back from Ukrainian captivity 157 Russian servicemen, as well as three Russian citizens captured during Kiev’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Ukrainian officials said 150 Ukrainian servicemen and seven civilians had returned from Russian captivity.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the freed Russian soldiers are currently in Belarus, receiving medical attention, before being taken back to Russia “for treatment and rehabilitation”.
Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said that of the 150 service members who returned from Russian captivity, 18 were “illegally convicted by Russia”. He said that “in general, those released are in a difficult psychological state, and some are extremely underweight.”
Zelensky says 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the war
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died since the Russian invasion. “And there is a large number of people that Ukraine considers missing,” he added in an interview broadcast by France 2 on Wednesday evening.
The last time Zelensky gave a figure for battlefield deaths, in early 2025, he said 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed.
Zelensky has repeatedly said his country needs security guarantees from the US and Europe to deter any post-war attacks by Russia.
Ukrainians must feel that there is real progress towards peace and “not towards a scenario where the Russians exploit everything to their advantage and continue their attacks,” Zelenskyi said on social media late Wednesday.
Last year saw a 31 percent increase in Ukrainian civilian casualties compared to 2024, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a report released Wednesday.
Nearly 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and just over 40,000 injured since the beginning of the war until last December, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
In other developments:
Russian troops have lost access to front-line Starlink satellite internet terminals, Ukrainian Economy Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Thursday, after Ukraine asked Elon Musk’s SpaceX to help deny Russia use of the service in Ukraine.
As a result, Russian forces lost command and control capabilities and drone navigation, and attacks ceased in many sectors, according to Fedorov’s adviser, Serhii Beskrestnov. Russian officials had no immediate comment.
Ukraine registers its civilian and military Starlink users in a database, allowing approved devices to operate while unregistered terminals are disabled inside Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also said during a visit to Kiev that he agreed with Zelenskyi to develop joint ammunition production at factories in their countries.
Zelenskyy said Poland plans to increase Ukraine’s supply of liquefied natural gas and the countries are exploring an arms exchange, with Kiev possibly receiving Polish MiG fighter jets and Warsaw receiving Ukrainian drones.
Russia fired 183 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Three people were injured, officials said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 95 Ukrainian drones overnight in several regions, the Sea of Azov and Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
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Burrows reported from London.
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This story corrects an earlier version that said Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2016. The annexation took place in 2014.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine