Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday described the first day of trilateral talks involving Ukraine, the United States and Russia, hosted in Abu Dhabi, as “constructive and quite substantive”.
In a public statement posted on X after speaking with Ukraine’s negotiating team on Tuesday (local time), Zelenskyy said the discussions focused heavily on humanitarian concerns, including prisoner releases, as well as strong security assurances for Kyiv. The participants also discussed the urgent need for de-escalation measures, he added.
Zelenskyy said he had given the Ukrainian negotiating team specific instructions for further discussions scheduled for Wednesday, along with broader meetings planned over the following days involving US presidential envoys and European representatives.
Earlier on Tuesday, official delegations from Moscow, Washington and Kyiv gathered in the capital of the United Arab Emirates for their first trilateral talks since February.
Before the formal trilateral discussions began, the Ukrainian delegation held consultations with representatives from Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy, along with delegates from the European Commission and NATO.
The high-level meeting also included American special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
Meanwhile, attacks continued across both nations. Five non-combatants, including a civilian commuter travelling on a public bus, were killed in Ukrainian strikes targeting the Lugansk region over the preceding 24 hours, regional leader Leonid Pasechnik said on Tuesday.
“It’s been a difficult day for our republic: five people were killed, and four more were injured,” Pasechnik said on the social media platform Telegram.
In a separate development, three employees of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant were killed in Ukrainian bombardments over the past fortnight, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik told reporters on Tuesday.
