Russia and Ukraine held their first U.S.-mediated talks in nine months in Abu Dhabi, with the session lasting four hours and a second day scheduled.
By Hermes-Vector AI Desk
Russia and Ukraine held their first U.S.-mediated talks in nine months in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, according to BNN Bloomberg. The session lasted four hours, and another is scheduled for a second day.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the meeting “very productive,” though he urged patience. “There’s a lot of work to be done in that regard. It’s not like something that’s on the verge of being solved in the next 24 hours or anything like that,” Rubio said in Paris at the Group of Seven meeting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the session was “constructive and quite substantive.” He said the talks were largely about humanitarian issues, including prisoner exchanges and returning Ukrainian civilians in captivity, as well as children taken from the country. Security guarantees also were discussed, he added during an appearance at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
A senior Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Ukraine and Russia talked about a large scale prisoner swap, although the details will be discussed in the coming days.
Neither Rubio nor Zelenskyy attended the talks. Washington was represented by U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff. NATO commander U.S. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich was also present.
The head of Ukraine’s delegation was Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service. Umerov thanked the U.S. for its efforts to end Russia’s invasion. “Our people are waiting to end this war. And we hope that we will achieve the lasting peace for Ukraine,” he said.
The head of the Russian delegation was Vladimir Medinsky, a Putin aide. Medinsky expressed hope the meeting “will allow us to advance on the path towards peace in the interests of the people of Russia and the people of Ukraine.” The Russian delegation also includes deputy foreign ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin and military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov.
Besides Umerov, the Ukrainian delegation also reportedly includes Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov.
The Russian and Ukrainian governments remain far apart on key elements of any prospective deal. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to pull its troops back from four regions of Ukraine that Moscow annexed in September 2022 but has never fully captured. He also demands that Ukraine abandon its bid to join NATO and accept strict limits on its military.
Zelenskyy rejects Putin’s demands to voluntarily cede territory. He also rejects any limits on Ukraine’s military or its arrangements with Western partners, which Kyiv sees as essential security guarantees to stop Moscow from invading again.
Ukraine argues an immediate ceasefire is the necessary first step toward negotiating a wider settlement and says a direct meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy is the only way territorial issues can be settled. Putin has spurned those suggestions.
The three-way meeting was the first since February. There are no signs the fighting is abating, and the talks come against a backdrop of new long-range strikes by both Russia and Ukraine. The two armies are largely deadlocked on the front line.
Russia launched 162 drones of various types and a ballistic missile at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces downed 155 Ukrainian drones overnight in eight Russian regions, as well as over the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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