Negotiators from Russia and Ukraine wrapped up two days of talks Wednesday in Abu Dhabi with the announcement of a large-scale prisoner exchange agreed to by both sides, but without any breakthroughs for a wider peace. The talks, which were mediated by the U.S., were the first held between the two countries in nine months amid a war of aggression that Moscow has waged on its smaller neighbor for almost five years.

The U.S. delegation, which was led by envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, remarked Wednesday that there were “some openings” as a result of the talks without elaborating on any wider agreement. Ukraine’s Davyd Arakhamia acknowledged that the round of talks “was one of the hardest” due to the Russian negotiators’ “very strict directives” from Moscow, which made it “extremely difficult to soften the discussion.” Still, he noted that the talks created “good momentum” and urged a second round of talks be organized without delay.

The talks did produce an agreement between the two warring countries for “the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners,” according to Kushner. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that between 1,000 and 1,500 prisoners would be exchanged over the next two to three weeks. Meanwhile, Kushner and Witkoff are scheduled to travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and then on to Dublin to meet with Zelensky.

As noted by the BBC, one of the core obstacles to a ceasefire is Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk, which is mostly controlled by Russia. While Kyiv wants to freeze the current battle lines to maintain control over the remaining areas that they hold, Moscow is demanding a full Ukrainian retreat from the oblast, with Kremlin negotiator Vladimir Medinsky blustering that “every inch” of the region would be “returned to Russia one way or another.”

Experts like Peter Doran, who serves as adjunct senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, say that Russia’s rhetoric on Donetsk is an example of their underhanded tactics to press every possible advantage.

“We’re watching a moving of the goalposts right now,” he observed during “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Tuesday. “Russia has been trying to get Ukraine to give up territory that Russia does not currently control. … They are trying to expand the negotiations to include not just Ukraine, but also what they call a new security architecture. That means they want to renegotiate NATO. They want to renegotiate the role that the United States has in Europe. And by expanding the negotiations, they hope that they can entice President Trump into a grander, bigger new deal. Right now, we don’t need that.”

Doran further pointed out that while Russia feigns to talk peace in Abu Dhabi, they “continue to launch missile and drone strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, against homes, against schools, against power plants, everything that will keep Ukrainians warm throughout the winter. If Vladimir Putin was serious about peace, and President Trump continues to say he believes he is, he would stop attacking these critical nodes of civilian infrastructure. He hasn’t. … The Ukrainians, to their credit, they have been very straightforward. They have said, ‘We are willing to talk peace.’ They are willing to negotiate. But Russia continues to demonstrate it is not serious. It wants to use these negotiations as an opportunity to gain more leverage over Ukraine, Europe, and the United States.”

Doran went on to highlight the hard reality that Putin is facing after launching an invasion based on a decision that it was simply his territory. “[S]ince Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Russia has suffered 400,000 dead. Think about that number for comparison. In World War II, we lost just about that same number of people over many years here in the United States. So Vladimir Putin is sacrificing not only his current generation, but future generations of Russians just to make a point. He is in a losing war here. The Ukrainians are winning. They are holding their ground, and the worst thing that can happen is if we pressure the Ukrainians to give up now.”

At the same time, Doran noted that the U.S. is also facing a hard reality. “… President Trump is not wrong to want to pursue peace. He is not wrong to want to find a way to bring about an end to this war. The problem is that Vladimir Putin does not care if it’s 400,000 or 800,000. Vladimir Putin runs his country like a dictator. He has no feedback mechanism, no way of learning from his own mistakes. And then we switch sides. We look over at the Ukrainian side, and we see people, men and women, who are just defending their homes. They do not want to become part of Russia’s empire. If we allow Europe and the United States to feed Ukraine to the alligator, the alligator is only going to want more.”

As for any glimmers of hope for a future peace, Doran cited a recent localized ceasefire as a starting point. “We have a limited and localized ceasefire in one part of Ukraine that has been encouraging. I would like to see perhaps that expand. Also, if the line of battle is frozen today and the United States does not recognize Russian gains, but the fighting stops along the line of battle, that could be positive. That could be something that we can work with.”