Ukraine and Russia will hold joint peace talks Friday with the United States, the first trilateral meeting since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion nearly four years ago.
The talks in Abu Dhabi follow what Russia said was an “extremely frank” meeting at the Kremlin between President Donald Trump’s envoys and Vladimir Putin. Trump met earlier Thursday with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The two-day meeting in the United Arab Emirates signals a renewed effort to strike a deal after months of stop-start diplomacy.
The key sticking point remains the future of territory in Ukraine’s east, with Moscow showing little sign of budging on its hardline demands. The Kremlin said Friday that Kyiv’s military would have to pull out of the area for any deal to end the war.
Zelenskyy announced the trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi after meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Hours later, Putin met with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters the meeting was an “exceptionally substantive, constructive, and, I would say, extremely frank and trusting” conversation, one that was “beneficial in every way for both our and the American sides.”
Ushakov confirmed the three-way talks on Friday will focus on “security issues,” and said the Russian delegation there will be led by Russian Admiral Igor Kostyukov. Putin’s economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev will separately meet with Witkoff, he said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told NBC News in his daily news briefing Friday that “military personnel” will be part of the Russian delegation.
Witkoff said in Davos on Thursday that the negotiations were “down to one issue.” While he did not elaborate, many took it to mean territorial concessions by Ukraine.
Russia has been clear that it wants the entire eastern Donbas region, which Ukraine still partially controls. Kyiv has refused to cede any territory that it still holds there, leading to an impasse that appears to have stalled negotiations.
Speaking with reporters via WhatsApp on Friday morning, Zelenskyy called the Donbas issue “key,” adding that it will be discussed by the trilateral group in Abu Dhabi in the days to follow.
Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian delegation will be headed by his top negotiator, Rustem Umerov. The trilateral meeting was “a step,” Zelenskyy said, adding: “We are not standing still.”
But Ushakov reiterated after the meeting at the Kremlin on Thursday that Putin’s territorial demands remain the same, and that without resolving the territorial issue, “there is no hope of achieving a long-term settlement.”
He reiterated Putin’s stance that until a diplomatic solution is reached, Russia will carry on its military campaign in Ukraine.
Asked if Russia wants full control over the Donbas, Peskov said Friday that “Russia’s position is well known — Ukraine and the Ukrainian Armed Forces must leave the territory of Donbas and withdraw from there. This is a very important condition. There are also other nuances that remain on the negotiating agenda.”
Trump has previously pushed of the idea of a free economic zone in the Donbas.
