Ukraine, Russia and US Resume Peace Talks in Abu Dhabi After Nine-Month Pause

ABU DHABI — Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States sat down in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for the first trilateral peace talks in nine months, reopening a diplomatic track that has produced four rounds of meetings and no breakthrough, as a fifth winter of war approaches and Moscow's bombardment of Ukraine's power grid intensifies.

The two-day session, which began at 11:50 a.m. local time, is the first such meeting since February, when talks in Geneva ended without agreement. Ukraine's chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, confirmed the delegations had begun work, writing on social media that the agenda covered "key questions related to ending hostilities and moving closer to peace." The scale of what is at stake is measured in the numbers behind the war.

"The hope today is not only to discuss the bilateral issues between the countries, and how do we end the war and bring some good humanitarian relief, but it's also how do we create the right security relationships between Ukraine and Russia and Europe," Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and one of the two American envoys, said at the outset.

Talks resume after nine months

The road back to the table has been long. The last trilateral round, in Geneva in February, fell short of Ukraine's goals, in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's words, because "sensitive political matters, issues of possible compromises and the necessary meeting of leaders have not yet been sufficiently worked through." A further round planned for March was postponed as the war between the United States, Israel and Iran erupted, and Washington-led efforts have been effectively deadlocked since.

Trump has repeatedly said he believes a settlement is within reach, while increasing pressure on Kyiv to reach an agreement with Moscow. In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" broadcast on Sunday, he said he believed the war would end soon, adding that Ukraine could emerge from a settlement in "a different shape." He has also suggested Ukraine may have to cede some territory, a scenario Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected.

Who is at the table — and who is not

The American side is represented by Kushner and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Umerov leads the Ukrainian delegation, which also includes Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov and parliamentary leader David Arakhamia. Russia's delegation is led by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, who has headed Moscow's team since the first direct talks in Istanbul in March 2022, alongside deputy foreign ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin.

Europe is present in Abu Dhabi, but not at the main table. National security advisers from Britain, France, Germany and Italy — the E4 group — along with NATO and European Commission officials, met the Ukrainian and American delegations before the trilateral session began, and will hold separate talks in the Emirati capital. The Kremlin said on Monday that the negotiations were "a trilateral negotiation — involving Russia and Ukraine — with the United States acting as a mediator," adding that Europe had its own channels of communication with Kyiv and Washington.

That exclusion is the sharpest point of tension around the talks. Zelenskyy said on November 6 that "issues concerning Europe's security must be discussed with the participation of European nations, all of which equally deserve guaranteed security." The Élysée Palace said on Tuesday that France's objective was to assert a fundamental principle: "the pursuit of peace in Ukraine and security in Europe are inextricably linked."

The Donbas deadlock

The substance of the divide has not moved since February. President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to pull its troops back from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — the four regions Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022 but has never fully captured. The immediate sticking point is Putin's demand for the entire Donbas, including areas of Donetsk and Luhansk that remain under Ukrainian control. Moscow has also demanded a ban on Ukraine's NATO membership, limits on its military, and the lifting of restrictions on the Russian language and the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Kyiv has rejected withdrawing from territory it holds, formally recognising Russian occupation, and restrictions on its armed forces, arguing that any settlement must prevent Russia from launching another invasion. Instead, Ukraine has called for an unconditional ceasefire as the first step toward broader talks, a proposal the Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed. Zelenskyy has stressed the need for postwar security guarantees, including continued Western support for Ukraine's military, the deployment of a European-led reassurance force, and other guarantees modelled on NATO's Article 5.

According to Zelenskyy, Russia is also raising the issue of its own "security guarantees," likely meaning demands for a rollback of NATO's military presence in Eastern and Central Europe. The European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Monday she saw little sign that Russia was willing to negotiate in good faith.

A war that has not paused

The talks open against a battlefield that has not paused for diplomacy. Russia's full-scale invasion is now in its fifth year, and with gains on the ground hard to come by, Moscow has escalated its aerial attacks. At least 55 people were killed last Monday when Russia dropped several bombs on a school building used as a shelter and aid centre in Zaporizhzhia, one of the deadliest single incidents of the war to date. More than 2,700 civilians have been killed in Russian strikes so far this year, according to ACLED, a global conflict monitor — the highest toll since the war began. The strike on the aid centre came hours after a local ceasefire in the neighbouring Kherson region expired.

Russian drones and missiles are already hitting Ukraine's energy infrastructure, harder and earlier than in previous winters, analysts say. Attacks on the power grid left more than 600,000 people in the Dnipropetrovsk region without electricity overnight into Sunday, Zelenskyy said, as temperatures fall. Russia has also deployed faster, jet-powered Shahed drones, which are harder to shoot down.

Zelenskyy said on Monday that Ukraine's battlefield gains and mounting Russian losses were strengthening Kyiv's position ahead of the talks.

What Washington wants — and what Europe fears

Trump has shown a willingness to strike business deals with Moscow, including one to supply markets with Russian diesel and he pressed Zelenskyy to accept a short-lived "energy ceasefire" announced on October 11. His sensitivity to rising gas prices, which climbed during the Iran war and contributed to the Republicans' midterm defeat, underlies the push for a settlement. The most realistic outcome from Abu Dhabi, analysts say, may be progress on specific issues — prisoner swaps, a maritime or energy pause — rather than a comprehensive peace agreement.

For Europe, the danger is a deal struck over its head that trades Ukrainian territory and European security for an American-Russian understanding. Trump has floated a new security deal for Ukraine that "might involve all of Europe," and the discussions in Abu Dhabi are expected to set the stage for a broader multilateral process on European security. But with Russia insisting the talks stay trilateral, European capitals are watching the Emirates for any sign that their security is being negotiated without them. Readers following the wider picture can find the latest reporting on the world news desk.