Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Roman Abramovich Played Role in Russia-Ukraine Prisoner Swap

The flight was one aspect of a sprawling diplomatic agreement that led to the release of more than 200 Ukrainians, including some that were flown to Turkey, along with 55 Russians and a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician, who were returned to Russia. The release included soldiers involved in a monthslong siege in the city of Mariupol that became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.

The unusual cast of characters involved in the agreement shows how Ukraine is reaching beyond its traditional partners to secure diplomatic breakthroughs when Ukrainian forces are making gains against Russia on the battlefield.

Saudi Arabia’s involvement was perhaps the most surprising aspect of the exchange, which was also brokered by Turkish President Recep

Tayyip Erdogan.

Until the prisoner negotiations, the Saudi kingdom played little role in any diplomacy surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war, as Crown Prince

Mohammed bin Salman

has drawn closer to Russia in recent years.

“Our aim is to save people, and we needed a country who is strong and independent with leverage over our northern neighbor,” said Rustem Umerov, a Ukrainian negotiator who was involved in the prisoner swap. “We shared the risks by separating the tracks. For foreign POWs, we cooperated with Saudi Arabia, and Ukrainian POWs, we cooperated with Turkey.”

Prince Mohammed this year has rejected American pressure to produce more oil, elevating energy prices and helping Russia fund its attack on Ukraine. Prince Mohammed is only now re-emerging after years of international isolation following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi government agents in 2018.

Getting involved in diplomacy around the war doesn’t mean the prince is backing away from his support for Russia. People familiar with the government’s thinking say he instead used the talks to rehabilitate his international image.

Mr. Abramovich, the former owner of Chelsea Football Club, has acted as a backchannel between Russia and Ukraine since the early days of the war, showing up during peace negotiations in Istanbul and helping to negotiate a deal in July that unlocked Ukraine’s Black Sea grain exports, according to officials and others familiar with the talks. He also played a central role in the prisoner negotiations, said Mr. Umerov.

“He facilitated all the POW-exchange matters with Russian officials, including different agencies and ministries and contributed to their release effort,” said Mr. Umerov, who is the special envoy of Ukraine President

Volodymyr Zelensky.

Saudi Arabia’s role in the prisoner swap resulted from contact between Ukrainian and Saudi officials in March of this year, according to Saudi and U.S. officials. Mr. Umerov flew to the kingdom in March and met that month with Saudi officials including the kingdom’s foreign minister, the officials said.

At the time, Prince Mohammed saw the talks as an opportunity to assert his influence on the world stage, and outflank rival countries, like Qatar, that might have played a mediating role in the conflict, Saudi officials said.

Throughout the war, Turkey, long a Saudi rival, has been a key broker in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Turkey has hosted two rounds of unsuccessful peace negotiations and helped broker the grain agreement signed in Istanbul in July.

Turkey also tried unsuccessfully to negotiate the evacuation of fighters from Mariupol during the Russian siege of the Azovstal Steel plant in April and May. The soldiers defending the plant, included many members of the Azov Battalion, which has been a target of Russian propaganda around the war because of the inclusion of far-right activists in its ranks. The siege ended on May 16 when hundreds of the fighters were captured by Russia.

Saudi and Russian officials remained in contact over the following months, negotiating toward a possible agreement. Prince Mohammed was personally involved in the negotiations, Saudi and American officials said.

Mr. Abramovich played a role as a backchannel to Russia, leveraging his personal relationship with both Mr. Putin and the crown prince, according to people familiar with the negotiations. The Russian oligarch visited Saudi Arabia in August and met with the crown prince. As the talks gathered steam, Mr. Umerov discussed the prisoner swap with the crown prince in Riyadh on Tuesday, said a U.S. official.

Ukrainian officials said they initially pushed to release a group of 50 prisoners of war, but through diplomacy unlocked a deal for even more.

“It was cooked for a very long, long time,” Mr. Umerov said of the deal. “Until the last person crossed the border, there was such huge tension.”

Saudi Arabia was the first to disclose the prisoner swap on Wednesday, announcing that 10 foreign nationals had flown to Riyadh from Russia. Saudi officials alerted the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh that two Americans were on the plane. Saudi Arabia’s deputy foreign minister, Saud al-Sati, a former ambassador to Russia, also played a key role in the talks and accompanied the freed detainees on the plane, Saudi and U.S. officials said.

The foreigners included three men—two British and one Moroccan—who had been sentenced to death in June by a court controlled by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine after being captured in Mariupol, British officials confirmed. Another British man died in custody. The men were among thousands of people who joined Ukraine’s foreign legion to help the country fight Russia’s invasion this year.

Also among them were two men from Alabama, Andy Huynh and Alex Drueke, U.S. military veterans who joined Ukraine’s armed forces in the battle against Russia, said U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (R., Ala.).

—Max Colechester contributed to this article.

Write to Jared Malsin at jared.malsin@wsj.com, Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com and Stephen Kalin at stephen.kalin@wsj.com