Talks in Abu Dhabi started on Friday and are due to continue over two days “as part of ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis”
Crunch peace talks kicked off today between Ukraine, Russia and the US, and Vladimir Putin has demanded Ukraine withdraw troops from areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed.
With next month marking four years since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of war-torn Ukraine, negotiators gathered in Abu Dhabi. The three-way talks mark the first known time officials from Donald Trump ’s administration simultaneously met with Ukraine and Russia negotiators.
Talks started on Friday and are due to continue over two days “as part of ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis”, the UAE’s foreign ministry said. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the future of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region will be a key focus.
The meeting came hours after Russian leader Vladimir Putin discussed the settlement in Ukraine with US President Trump’s envoys during marathon overnight talks. The Kremlin insisted that to reach a peace deal, Kyiv must withdraw troops from areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed but never fully captured.
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Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has reiterated his openness to establishing a free trade zone under Ukraine’s control in the country’s east. The Ukrainian president said he discussed the proposal with Trump in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday and told reporters: “I think it will be positive for our business.”
While it is unclear exactly how the talks in Abu Dhabi will unfold and many obstacles to peace remain, some see it as a sign the countries are making progress in closing a deal. Zelenskyy said after meeting with Trump that while the future status of land in eastern Ukraine occupied by Russia remains unresolved, the peace proposals are “nearly ready”. “Today’s meeting will be in the format of Ukraine, Russia and the United States, and afterward the Europeans will certainly receive feedback from us,” he told journalists in a WhatsApp audio message.
The Kremlin offered little detail beyond calling the meeting a “working group on security issues”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian delegation is comprised of military officials. The talks could be extended into Saturday, “if necessary”, he said. Separately, Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev will hold talks with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff on economic issues, he confirmed.
The Kremlin meeting, which lasted past 3am on Friday, came hours after Zelenskyy criticised European allies on Thursday for what he cast as their slow and fragmented response that he said has left Ukraine at the mercy of Putin amid an ongoing US push for a peace settlement. Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov, who participated in Putin’s meeting with Trump’s envoys Witkoff and Jared Kushner, said “it was reaffirmed that reaching a long-term settlement can’t be expected without solving the territorial issue”.
Zelenskyy met with Trump behind closed doors for about an hour at the World Economic Forum in Davos, describing it as “productive and meaningful”. Speaking aboard Air Force One as he flew back to Washington DC from Davos, Trump said his meeting with Zelenskyy went well, adding that both Putin and the Ukrainian leader want to reach a deal and that “everyone’s making concessions” to try to end the war.
Russia’s bigger army has managed to capture abt a fifth of Ukraine since hostilities began in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of 2022. But battlefield gains along the roughly 600-mile front line have been costly for Moscow, and the Russian economy is feeling the consequences of the war and international sanctions. Ukraine is short of money and, despite significantly boosting its own arms manufacturing, still needs Western weaponry. It is also short-handed on the front line. Its defence minister last week reported some 200,000 troop desertions, and draft-dodging by around two million Ukrainians.