Senior officials from Moscow, Kyiv and Washington meet in Abu Dhabi for the first trilateral talks since February, focusing on postwar security concerns and the status of Ukraine's eastern regions.
Senior officials from Moscow, Kyiv and Washington are meeting in Abu Dhabi for the first trilateral talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine since February, as the fifth anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion approaches.
Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and part of the US delegation alongside peace envoy Steve Witkoff, said the talks would be focused on addressing the "postwar security concerns" of both Russia and Ukraine. Kushner wrote on X that an important part of the process is encouraging all parties to begin thinking seriously about what comes after the war.
A US official said Moscow and Kyiv have shown "a little bit of flexibility, privately" on the issue of who would control Ukraine's eastern regions in a postwar scenario, though their public positions remain far apart. The official said the sides will not solve the Donetsk issue and the territorial issue until they know what the security architecture is going to be after the war.
The framework being proposed includes security consultations and crisis communications hotlines, as well as "reciprocal de-escalation measures" between the two. The officials also floated the re-activation of the Nato-Russia Council that has been largely paused since 2022.
Moscow's delegation in Abu Dhabi will include Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, deputy foreign ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, spy chief Igor Kostyukov and army general Yury Zhigarlovsky.
Kyiv is sending several senior officials who have been part of previous negotiating teams, including Foreign Intelligence Service head Rustem Umerov, Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov, and MP Davyd Arakhamiya.
Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the foreign affairs parliamentary committee, told the BBC he believes Trump wants "a quick deal at the expense of Ukraine", which will certainly be rejected by Kyiv. Merezhko said the only way to make Putin start real negotiations is by putting greater pressure on Russia through sanctions and deep strikes.
European leaders have been largely excluded from peace talks and have pushed to be involved amid concerns that decisions about the security of their continent would be made without them. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged on Monday to include Nato allies and EU members into any "meaningful discussions about Europe's security architecture". President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly stated Kyiv wanted Europe to be part of the talks.
The US official said the Americans would propose moving into a multilateral format bringing the Europeans into the discussion, while acknowledging that "the Russians have a bad taste in their mouth with the Europeans."
The Abu Dhabi talks mark the resumption of direct Russia-US-Ukraine consultations after a months-long pause, with both sides still divided over control of Ukraine's eastern regions and the future security architecture of Europe.
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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