Negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the United States met in Abu Dhabi on Friday for their first direct discussions on a peace proposal backed by US President Donald Trump to end the nearly four-year-long war, according to officials and media reports. Talks are expected to continue on Saturday, the UAE foreign ministry said.
The discussions come amid renewed diplomatic activity, including Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, and subsequent talks between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.
Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said after the first day of talks that discussions focused “on the parameters for ending Russia’s war and the further logic of the negotiation process,” adding that further meetings were scheduled for Saturday. The UAE foreign ministry described the talks as part of “ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis.”
The US-led peace push has drawn criticism from both sides. Kyiv and several Western European countries earlier objected to an initial US draft they said leaned too closely toward Moscow’s position, while Russia later criticised revised proposals that raised the possibility of deploying European peacekeepers.
Territory at the Core
Territory remains the central point of contention. Ahead of the talks, Zelensky said the fate of eastern Ukraine—particularly the Donbas region—was the key unresolved issue. Russia has maintained its demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from Donbas, a condition Kyiv has firmly rejected.
Hours after Putin met Witkoff—and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner—in Moscow, the Kremlin reiterated its stance. “Russia’s position is well known on the fact that Ukraine, Ukrainian armed forces, have to leave the territory of the Donbas,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “This is a very important condition.”
Ukraine still controls around 20 percent of the eastern region and has refused to concede territory. “The Donbas is a key issue,” Zelensky told reporters on Friday, noting that he and Trump had discussed post-war security guarantees in Davos. Later, he wrote online: “It is necessary that not only Ukraine has the desire to end the war and achieve full security, but that a similar desire somehow emerges in Russia as well.”
Fighting Continues
The Abu Dhabi talks coincided with continued fighting on the ground. Russian strikes left thousands without heating in Kyiv amid sub-zero temperatures, prompting the European Union—which has supplied hundreds of generators—to accuse Moscow of “deliberately depriving civilians of heat.” Ukrainian authorities said strikes killed three people in the Kharkiv region on Friday and four others, including a father and his five-year-old son, overnight in the east.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators last met face-to-face in Istanbul last summer, with talks limited to prisoner exchanges. The Abu Dhabi meeting marks their first direct engagement on the Trump administration’s broader peace plan.
Putin has repeatedly said Russia will seek full control of eastern Ukraine by force if negotiations fail. After the Kremlin talks with US officials, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said Moscow was “genuinely interested in resolving” the conflict diplomatically, but added: “Until that happens, Russia will continue to achieve its objectives… on the battlefield.”
Trump, who has previously urged Ukraine to accept terms Kyiv views as capitulation, said this week he believed a deal was within reach. “I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done,” he said on Wednesday. “And if they don’t, they’re stupid—that goes for both of them.”
