ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Nov 10 – Russia and Ukraine held nearly four hours of US-mediated negotiations in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday as Washington renewed efforts to bring an end to the war that began with Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly five years ago. The discussions, involving representatives from all three countries, marked another attempt to narrow deep political and security differences that have prevented a negotiated settlement.
The two-day meeting in the United Arab Emirates capital is the first trilateral round of negotiations since February. Washington has placed particular emphasis on establishing security guarantees for both countries, a central issue in any potential agreement. Russia considers NATO’s expansion a threat to its national security, while Ukraine wants firm international assurances that Moscow will not launch another invasion if a peace agreement is reached.
The first day of discussions ended after almost four hours, according to Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti. Negotiations are expected to continue on Wednesday, the press office of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service said.
US President Donald Trump has assigned a central role to his special diplomatic efforts, with his son-in-law Jared Kushner and US envoy Steve Witkoff working to develop a framework acceptable to both Moscow and Kyiv. Speaking about the negotiations, Kushner expressed cautious optimism, saying he believed the discussions had produced “some good ideas how to bridge” the differences between the two sides.
However, expectations remain limited following several previous rounds of negotiations earlier this year that failed to deliver significant progress. The conflict, which has become Europe’s largest war since World War II, has resulted in hundreds of thousands of military casualties and thousands of civilian deaths, according to analysts and humanitarian organizations.
US Pushes for a New Framework to Secure Lasting Peace
Opening the negotiations, Kushner said the United States wanted to draw lessons from previous diplomatic efforts and develop a new structure for addressing the disagreements between Russia and Ukraine.
He explained that the discussions would examine which elements of earlier arrangements had worked, identify the reasons previous initiatives had failed and use that experience to establish a more sustainable understanding between the two countries.
“We take what’s worked, we try to identify what’s failed, why we’re in this position and hopefully create a new framework that leads us for decades, if not centuries, of peace,” Kushner said.
US Army Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the NATO commander attending the meeting, also highlighted earlier cooperation between military representatives from the three countries. He pointed to progress made through previous trilateral military-to-military discussions and said the American delegation intended to build on those experiences.
Grynkewich said Washington wanted to work with both Russia and Ukraine to advance existing diplomatic and military discussions and establish the foundations for a lasting peace.
Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service and leader of Kyiv’s delegation, thanked the United States for its involvement in efforts to end the invasion. He said Ukrainians were waiting for the conflict to conclude and expressed hope that the negotiations would produce a durable peace rather than a temporary arrangement.
The Russian delegation was led by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin who has represented Moscow in earlier negotiations. Medinsky said he hoped the discussions would help advance the peace process in the interests of both Russian and Ukrainian populations.
Before the main trilateral discussions, Umerov said the Ukrainian delegation had met with American representatives and officials from several European institutions and NATO. Participants in that earlier meeting included representatives from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission.
The involvement of European officials reflects the broader security implications of the conflict, particularly as any eventual agreement could affect NATO’s position, European defence arrangements and relations between Moscow and Western governments.
Moscow and Kyiv Remain Divided Over Territory and Security
Despite renewed diplomatic activity, Russia and Ukraine continue to hold fundamentally different positions on the conditions required to end the war. Territorial control, Ukraine’s future relationship with NATO and the size of its armed forces remain among the most difficult issues.
Putin wants Ukrainian forces to withdraw from four regions that Moscow declared part of Russia in September 2022, despite never establishing full control over those territories. The Russian president also demands that Ukraine abandon its ambition to join NATO and accept significant restrictions on its military capabilities.
Other Russian demands include changes to Ukrainian policies concerning the Russian language and the Moscow-affiliated Orthodox Church operating in Ukraine. Moscow has presented these issues as part of a wider settlement that it wants addressed through a comprehensive agreement.
Putin has also rejected proposals for an immediate general ceasefire, arguing that suspending the fighting without resolving the underlying disagreements would give Ukrainian forces an opportunity to recover, reorganize and replenish their weapons supplies.
Kyiv strongly opposes these conditions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected demands that his country voluntarily surrender territory to Russia. He also opposes restrictions on Ukraine’s military strength and its ability to establish security partnerships with Western countries.
Zelenskyy, who was visiting Denmark on Tuesday, has maintained that Ukraine needs reliable security guarantees to prevent another Russian invasion after any potential peace agreement.
The Ukrainian government argues that an immediate ceasefire should be the starting point for wider negotiations. Kyiv also believes that territorial questions should ultimately be addressed through direct discussions between Zelenskyy and Putin. However, the Russian president has repeatedly rejected proposals for such a meeting.
These competing positions leave the negotiations facing substantial obstacles. Russia wants a comprehensive settlement based on its security and territorial demands, while Ukraine insists that any agreement must protect its sovereignty and prevent Moscow from renewing military operations in the future.
The diplomatic efforts are also taking place while fighting continues across the battlefield. Neither side has shown signs of significantly reducing its military operations, and the front line remains largely deadlocked.
Russia’s air force launched 162 drones of various types and a ballistic missile towards Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine’s air force. Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported that its forces intercepted 155 Ukrainian drones over eight Russian regions and the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.
The continuing attacks have reinforced concerns that negotiations may struggle to produce meaningful progress while both militaries maintain pressure on the battlefield.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also expressed limited expectations about the latest diplomatic initiative. Speaking to German public broadcaster ZDF television on Monday night, Merz said he did not have particularly high hopes for the negotiations.
Experienced Delegations Lead Negotiations in Abu Dhabi
Both Russia and Ukraine have sent senior officials familiar with previous attempts to negotiate an end to the conflict, indicating that the discussions are being treated as an important diplomatic engagement.
Medinsky is leading the Russian delegation. He has headed Moscow’s negotiating team since the first direct peace discussions between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in March 2022, shortly after the full-scale invasion began.
The Russian delegation also includes Deputy Foreign Ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov and Yuri Zhigarlovsky, deputy chief of the General Staff’s operational department.
Ukraine’s delegation is led by Umerov and includes several senior political and security officials. Reports identified Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, his deputy Sergiy Kyslytsya and Davyd Arakhamia, the parliamentary faction leader of Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party, among the Ukrainian representatives.
Their participation brings together officials involved in earlier diplomatic efforts and gives both governments experienced negotiators capable of discussing military, political and security arrangements.
The composition of the delegations also reflects the complicated nature of the negotiations. Any agreement would require decisions involving territorial disputes, military deployments, international security commitments and the future relationship between Russia and Ukraine.
While the immediate discussions are focused on establishing common ground, the wider challenge will be securing commitments that both governments are prepared to accept and implement.
Trump Administration Seeks a Wider European Security Agreement
Washington’s diplomatic ambitions extend beyond the immediate conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Trump said last week that discussions were underway over what he described as a major agreement concerning European security, suggesting that the arrangement would involve more countries and issues than Ukraine alone.
Kushner also indicated that a lasting settlement would require direct engagement between Russia and European governments over wider security arrangements.
In a post on X on Monday, he said a comprehensive and durable agreement would involve discussions between Moscow and its European partners on security questions affecting the continent.
Russia has welcomed the broader approach. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow supported the American negotiators’ proposal to place collective security at the centre of discussions surrounding a settlement in Ukraine.
Lavrov’s comments suggest that the Kremlin sees an opportunity to address long-standing disagreements with Western countries through the current diplomatic process, rather than limiting negotiations to the immediate military conflict.
However, the proposal has raised concerns among some European Union officials, who believe Washington’s approach could give Moscow too much influence over the continent’s future security arrangements.
Russia has also objected to direct European participation in the current three-way negotiations involving the United States, Ukraine and Russia. Moscow has nevertheless indicated that representatives from the European Union could become involved at a later stage.
The disagreement over Europe’s role highlights another challenge facing the diplomatic process. While the United States is attempting to bring the two warring countries closer to an agreement, European governments remain directly affected by the outcome and want their security concerns reflected in any settlement.
For now, the Abu Dhabi discussions represent another attempt to establish a diplomatic path forward after years of fighting and repeated unsuccessful negotiations. The first day’s nearly four-hour session produced encouraging comments from some participants, but no agreement or major breakthrough was announced.
The delegations are expected to return to the negotiating table on Wednesday. Whether the discussions can narrow the differences over territory, NATO membership and future security guarantees remains uncertain, particularly as Russian and Ukrainian forces continue exchanging long-range attacks.