Russian and Ukrainian officials meet in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for two days of talks brokered by the United States — the first trilateral meeting of the three sides since February — after President Donald Trump suggested last week that a broad deal to end their four-and-a-half-year war was possible.
The discussions, scheduled to begin at about 06:30 GMT (11:30 PKT) on Tuesday, 10 November, bring together delegations led on the Russian side by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, on the Ukrainian side by Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service, and on the American side by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Mr Trump's son-in-law. Russia's delegation also includes Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov for the first time and senior military officer Yuri Zhigarlovsky.
Security guarantees top the agenda. Both Russia and Ukraine have said the two-day session will focus on the guarantees Kyiv would receive under any settlement, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Ukraine and its allies have discussed assurances similar to NATO's Article 5, under which an attack on one member is treated as an attack on all. Also on the table are the territorial disputes at the heart of the war, limits on Ukraine's military and a wider European security framework.
A United States official told Reuters that American negotiators believed Mr Zelenskyy and President Vladimir Putin might each be willing to compromise on territory, with Ukraine receiving an end to the war, security guarantees and a roadmap to membership of the European Union in return. A senior Ukrainian official strongly denied that Kyiv would consider territorial concessions, saying the issue could be discussed only at a leaders' level and only in the context of appropriate security guarantees. Mr Zelenskyy has staunchly refused to hand over land his forces have died defending, while there has been no public sign that Mr Putin is willing to drop his insistence that Ukraine surrender the whole of the eastern Donbas region before a deal can be struck.
On the eve of the talks, Mr Zelenskyy said Ukraine's leverage was increasing because of its recent battlefield performance, including retaking some territory in Donetsk, the coal-mining heart of the Donbas. "Ukrainian forces are currently genuinely strengthening Ukraine's negotiating position," he said in his nightly video address on Monday, adding that Russia was suffering "record losses" — a claim Moscow disputes — and urging Washington to convince the Kremlin to end the war. Russian front-line advances have slowed to a virtual halt this year, Reuters reported.
The diplomatic groundwork continued into the final hours before the session. Mr Zelenskyy spoke by telephone with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, who reiterated India's readiness to support dialogue and diplomacy, while Mr Zelenskyy welcomed India's offer to help mediate the establishment of "food corridors". India's foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, also spoke to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. Mr Trump, who met Mr Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev at the White House on 4 November, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that the two sides were "very close" to a deal but would end up with "a little bit different shape Ukraine".
European powers will be present in Abu Dhabi but not at the negotiating table. France, Germany and the European Commission are sending officials, though Russia has made clear it does not want the Europeans to take part in the negotiations; Ukrainian delegates will instead meet them separately to brief them on progress. "We are doing everything to ensure that Europe is a participant in the diplomatic process," Mr Umerov said on Monday. Mr Trump said last week that envoys had been discussing a broader security deal that could involve the whole of Europe — "It's going to be a big agreement, and it's going to involve more than Ukraine" — prompting a backlash from European officials who said negotiations on European security needed the direct involvement of the governments concerned.
The talks come after months in which Washington's attention was focused on the war with Iran, and they follow a series of failed efforts earlier this year. Previous rounds of negotiations in the first months of 2026 produced no visible progress towards ending Europe's deadliest conflict since the Second World War, though a localised truce around the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky in southern Ukraine was brokered last month with the help of US First Lady Melania Trump. A truce on striking energy targets announced by Mr Trump last month quickly fell apart: Ukraine has escalated its strikes on Russian oil refineries in recent weeks while Moscow has pounded Ukraine's electricity infrastructure and cities, and Mr Zelenskyy said last week that every power plant in Ukraine had been damaged in one way or another.
The odds of a breakthrough remain uncertain. Mr Trump has frequently said an agreement was close without one emerging, and the two sides remain far apart on the central questions. G7 foreign ministers are also expected to discuss Ukraine on Tuesday, the second day of their gathering in Paris, where Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha will join them, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday there had been "advances" in what Europe's post-conflict security architecture could look like. Since Mr Trump took office, the United States has slashed direct aid to Kyiv, leaving Europe as the main foreign funder of Ukraine's budget and military purchases — and Mr Zelenskyy has voiced hope that the Democrats' victory in last week's US midterm elections could increase support for Ukraine from Washington.
What happens over the next two days in Abu Dhabi will show whether the renewed diplomacy has moved beyond the stalemate of the earlier rounds. If the delegations find common ground on guarantees and territory, the way could open to a meeting between the two presidents — the step Mr Zelenskyy insists is the only way the territorial question can be settled. If they do not, the war will grind on into its fifth year, with both sides continuing to strike each other's energy infrastructure while the diplomats search for another opening.
