The first day of US-mediated trilateral talks between Russia and Ukraine ended in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday after nearly four hours, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling the session "constructive and quite substantive" and American envoys saying it produced "potential ideas" to bridge the two sides' differences.
Photo: Comedian44, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The two-day session in the capital of the United Arab Emirates is the first three-way meeting since February, and Washington is making a renewed push to end a war now nearing its fifth year. The talks are expected to resume on Wednesday morning, according to the press office of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service.
A first day of "potential ideas"
Ukraine's delegation is led by Rustem Umerov, head of the country's Foreign Intelligence Service, while Russia's chief negotiator is Vladimir Medinsky, a longtime aide to President Vladimir Putin. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are mediating the talks, and US representatives indicated after the first day that the discussions had produced some potential ideas to bridge the differences between Moscow and Kyiv. Zelenskyy gave his positive assessment after receiving a briefing from Kyiv's negotiating team in the Emirates.
What the talks must solve
US officials said the aim is to establish a more regular rhythm of negotiations. The first session covered how a ceasefire would be monitored and what arrangements would stop either side from using a pause in the fighting to rearm. The second session takes up territory, the most contentious issue: Putin wants Ukraine to pull its troops back from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, the four regions Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured.
Washington has asked Russia to accept security guarantees for Ukraine modelled on NATO's Articles Four and Five, which cover consultation and collective defence. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called for European partners to be included in the negotiations, saying their participation would be important for securing a long-term settlement. Germany, France, the UK and Italy are taking part in a separate session alongside NATO, the EU and Ukraine.
Strikes continue as diplomats meet
The talks opened against a backdrop of heavy fighting. Russia launched 162 drones and a ballistic missile at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine's air force said, while Russia's defence ministry said its forces shot down 155 Ukrainian drones overnight. Russian forces also struck 10 Ukrainian regions in air attacks that targeted five major electrical substations, sparking widespread power outages and killing two people in the Vinnytsia region, Reuters reported. State grid operator Ukrenergo said energy infrastructure was hit in eight regions, leaving homes without power in six, including Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would not agree to an immediate ceasefire without knowing what would happen next, a reminder of how far apart the two sides remain on the core questions.
Why this round matters
The war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, is Europe's biggest since World War II and has killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians. US officials said the talks had stalled earlier this year after an attack on a residence of President Putin and the outbreak of the Iran war diverted American attention. With winter approaching and both sides still launching long-range strikes, Washington is seeking a breakthrough before the cold sets in — and Wednesday's second day will show whether the first day's "potential ideas" can survive contact with the hardest question of all: territory.
Sources: The Hindu, Associated Press, Reuters, Times Now.