Three-way talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States opened Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, with the session expected to focus on security guarantees.
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Three-way talks mediated by the United States between Russia and Ukraine began Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, with a two-day meeting in the UAE capital described as the first of its kind since February.
The White House said the discussions would focus on security guarantees, as Washington renewed its push to end the war that began after Moscow’s all-out invasion nearly five years ago.
At the start of the talks, Russia’s delegation chief, Vladimir Medinsky, said the Russian team had “become bigger and more professional” and 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.”
Rustem Umerov, who heads Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service and is leading Kyiv’s delegation, said the day began with a meeting that included the Ukrainian team, the U.S. envoys and representatives from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission.
U.S. envoy Jared Kushner said on X that he and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff were working on a “negotiated solution that can deliver lasting peace and create the conditions for a sovereign, secure, and prosperous Ukraine within a more stable European security environment.”
The talks come as Russia and Ukraine remain far apart on the conditions for any prospective deal. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to pull its troops back from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, the four regions Moscow annexed in September 2022 but did not fully capture, and also wants Ukraine to abandon its bid to join NATO, accept strict limits on its military, and drop restrictions involving the Russian language and the Moscow-affiliated Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
Putin has said Russia would not agree to a general halt in hostilities, arguing such a pause would allow Ukrainian forces to rest and replenish weapons stockpiles, and he has warned Russia will achieve its goals by force if Kyiv does not accept Russia’s conditions.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was visiting Denmark on Tuesday, rejected Putin’s demands to voluntarily cede territory Ukraine says Russia has not been able to take on the battlefield, and Zelenskyy also rejected limits on Ukraine’s military and arrangements with Western partners that Kyiv views as essential security guarantees.
Ukraine argues an immediate ceasefire should be the first step toward negotiations for a wider settlement, and it says a direct meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy is the only way territorial issues can be resolved.
Delegations include senior officials who have attended previous rounds. Medinsky led Moscow’s team since the first direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in March 2022, and the Russian delegation also includes deputy foreign ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov and Yuri Zhigarlovsky, deputy chief of the General Staff’s operational department.
In addition to Umerov, Ukraine’s delegation reportedly includes Kyrylo Budanov, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Sergiy Kyslytsya, his deputy, and Davyd Arakhamia, the parliamentary faction leader of Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party.
Before the start of the three-way talks, Kushner said he and Witkoff would meet separately with envoys from Ukraine, the European Union, NATO, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy to “continue the close consultation and coordination we have undertaken on European security and Ukraine’s postwar future over the past several weeks.”
Kushner also pointed to plans for broader European security arrangements, saying on X last week that a comprehensive and lasting settlement will require direct engagement between Russia and European partners on those security arrangements.
Ahead of and during the opening of the talks, fighting continued and both sides reported intensified aerial activity. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 162 drones of various types and a ballistic missile at Ukraine overnight, while Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces shot down 155 Ukrainian drones overnight over eight Russian regions as well as Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The front line has been described as largely deadlocked, with hostilities continuing against a backdrop of long-range strikes involving drones and missiles as the war enters its fifth year.
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