US, Russia and Ukraine open Abu Dhabi talks aimed at ending the war
On Tuesday, US, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators open two-day trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, the first substantive negotiations since February in a war that has lasted more than four and a half years. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday in his nightly video address that genuine battlefield gains and completed defensive operations are strengthening Ukraine’s hand at the table. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, lead the US delegation. Trump said in Washington that Washington sees a very strong inclination toward ending the war and that both sides are tired of fighting. A US official said security guarantees for Kyiv are central, including a possible NATO-style Article 5 defence if Ukraine is attacked, and that any territorial deal would likely come last, after a postwar security architecture is agreed. Neither side has been willing to make major territorial concessions: Ukraine wants Russia pushed back to the original border, while Vladimir Putin wants all of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas. European officials from France, Germany and the European Commission are excluded from the room at Russia’s insistence; Ukraine’s delegation, led by foreign intelligence chief Rustem Umerov, will brief them separately. Umerov said priorities include ending the fighting, reliable postwar security guarantees, economic recovery and humanitarian steps. Europeans, already sidelined, fear Washington could press a deal favourable to Russia. The US envoys met Ukrainian and European officials in Abu Dhabi before the talks began.
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