ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Three-way talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States opened Tuesday in the United Arab Emirates, as Washington made a new effort to end the war that ensued. The total invasion of Moscow from his neighbor almost five years ago.
The two-day session in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi is the first meeting of this type since February. It will focus on establishing future security guarantees for countries at war, the White House said before the talks. Russia views NATO as a threat and Ukraine wants to prevent future Russian invasions.
Son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, Jared Kushnerwho, with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, is trying to negotiate a settlement, said he believed there were “good ideas on how to bridge” the differences between the two sides.
But hopes for progress in ending Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II are tempered by the absence of any significant progress in three previous rounds of negotiations at the beginning of this year. The war has already killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians, analysts and aid organizations say.
There are no signs of the fighting easing and the talks took place against a backdrop of new long-range strikes between Russia and Ukraine. The two armies are largely blocked on the front line.
Russia launched 162 drones of different types and a ballistic missile into Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 155 Ukrainian drones overnight over eight Russian regions, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
“I don’t have too high expectations” with regard to these negotiations, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday evening in an interview with ZDF television.
Kushner says US wants to build on past experience
Kushner said in his speech opening the talks that the goal is to “create a new framework and a new understanding that builds on the different institutions and understandings of the past.”
“We take what worked, we try to identify what failed, why we are in this position and we hope to create a new framework that will lead us to decades, if not centuries, of peace,” Kushner said.
NATO Commander US General Alexus Grynkewich, who was also present, highlighted “great progress in the past in military dialogue in a trilateral format”.
He said the U.S. delegation looked forward to “working with both sides as we seek to advance the progress we have made in the past and continue this quest to lay the foundation for lasting peace.”
Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service and head of the kyiv delegation, thanked the United States for its efforts to stop the Russian invasion.
“Our people are waiting for the end of this war. And we hope that we will achieve lasting peace for Ukraine,” he said.
Ukrainians meet European and NATO officials for the first time
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, noted at the start of the negotiations that the Russian delegation “has become larger and more professional.”
He expressed hope that the meeting “will allow us to move forward on the path to peace in the interests of the Russian people and the Ukrainian people.”
Umerov said the day began with a meeting between the Ukrainian team, US envoys and representatives from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission.
Russia and Ukraine maintain their divergent demands
The Russian and Ukrainian governments remain far apart on the key elements of a possible agreement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its troops from four regions of Ukraine that Moscow annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured. It also demands that Ukraine abandon its attempt to join NATOaccept strict limits on its military and abandon restrictions on the Russian language and the Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Putin wants a comprehensive peace deal on these terms and will not agree to a general cessation of hostilities, arguing that this would only allow Ukrainian troops to rest and replenish their weapons stocks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskywho was visiting Denmark on Tuesday, rejects Putin’s demands to voluntarily cede territory. Zelensky also rejects any limits on Ukraine’s military or its agreements with Western partners, which kyiv sees as key security guarantees to prevent Moscow from invading again.
Ukraine says an immediate ceasefire is the necessary first step toward negotiating a broader settlement and says a direct meeting between Putin and Zelensky is the only way to resolve territorial issues. Putin rejected these suggestions.
Russia and Ukraine send experienced negotiators
The Russian and Ukrainian delegations include senior officials who participated in previous rounds of negotiations.
Russia’s chief negotiator is Medinsky, a Putin aide who has led the Moscow team since the first direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in March 2022. The Russian delegation also includes Deputy Foreign Ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, head of military intelligence Igor Kostyukov and deputy head of the General Staff’s operational department Yuri Zhigarlovsky.
Besides Umerov, the Ukrainian delegation would also include Zelensky’s chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov, his deputy Sergiy Kyslytsya, and Davyd Arakhamia, the parliamentary faction leader of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party.
US says broader European security deal in the works
Last week, Trump said some sort of big deal on European security was in the works, describing it as “a big deal” that “will involve more than just Ukraine.”
Kushner said Monday on X that a “comprehensive and lasting settlement will also require direct engagement between Russia and our European partners on the broader security arrangements that concern them.”
Moscow welcomed this broad approach.
“We can only welcome President Donald Trump’s request to place the issue of collective security at the top of the agenda in negotiations on the Ukrainian settlement,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Some in the European Union view Washington’s proposals as too accommodating toward Moscow.
Russia opposed European involvement in the three-way talks, but said EU representatives could join them later.
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