Abu Dhabi Hosts First Ukraine Peace Talks in Nine Months as Washington Pushes a Wider European Bargain

Negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the United States meet in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for two days of talks on ending the war in Ukraine, the first three-way meeting since February. The discussions, due to begin at about 6:30 a.m. GMT, are being mediated by Washington, with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, leading the American delegation. It is the first direct contact between the warring sides in nine months, and the first round since the United States and Israel launched joint strikes against Iran, which interrupted earlier diplomacy.

The delegations are led by familiar faces. Russia's team is again headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, joined for the first time by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, spy chief Igor Kostyukov and army general Yury Zhigarlovsky. Ukraine's delegation is led by Rustem Umerov, head of the National Security and Defence Council, alongside intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov and Davyd Arakhamia. Officials from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Union are also in Abu Dhabi, but only for separate meetings: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has made clear that the negotiations themselves will remain trilateral, and Moscow does not want the Europeans at the table.

The agenda, as set out by Mr Witkoff when he announced the round on 2 November, covers post-war security arrangements, de-escalation and humanitarian steps. The most difficult question remains territory. A US official briefing reporters on the eve of the talks said Moscow and Kyiv had shown "a little bit of flexibility, privately" over who would control Ukraine's eastern regions after the war, and that American negotiators believed both leaders might accept a compromise in which each side ceded a little. US officials also said they had discussed with Russia security guarantees for Ukraine similar to Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty, while a military working group led by the US European Command chief, General Alexus Grynkewich, is expected to work on ceasefire monitoring and security arrangements.

The talks come as the war enters its fifth year, with another winter approaching and no previous round having come close to a breakthrough. Three rounds of US-mediated talks were held earlier in 2026 — on 23–24 January and 4–5 February in Abu Dhabi, and on 17–18 February in Geneva — and the Geneva round ended without agreement. This time, however, the Trump administration is pushing for something broader: according to the Washington Post, it now believes a deal on Ukraine must come with a wider agreement with Russia on Europe's future security, including security consultations, crisis hotlines, reciprocal de-escalation measures and a possible revival of the NATO-Russia Council.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his team was already in the United Arab Emirates and would propose de-escalatory steps, adding that there must be an understanding on how to arrange a leaders-level trilateral meeting "to bring this war to an end fairly and for real". Mr Kushner said on Monday that a settlement would require direct talks between Russia and Europe "on the broader security arrangements that affect them", and that the United States "recognises difficult decisions ahead". US officials said Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner may travel to Moscow and Kyiv after the Abu Dhabi sessions to speak directly with Presidents Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy.

Online, the mood is sceptical rather than hopeful. A thread on Reddit's r/worldnews about European officials joining the talks in Abu Dhabi despite the Kremlin's objections drew hundreds of upvotes (r/worldnews), while another widely shared thread quoted the EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, accusing Russia of "pretending" to negotiate while bombing civilians (r/worldnews). The talks run through Wednesday; the first test will be whether two days of technical-level discussion produce anything more than the familiar promise to keep talking.