New round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks commences in Abu Dhabi

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - ABU DHABI — A new round of trilateral talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine commenced in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

The start of the talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US was announced by Russian state media, including state news agency RIA, at 0800GMT.

Russian presidential envoy Vladimir Medinsky is leading Moscow’s delegation, while Kyiv is being led by Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service.

The talks are the first to take place since trilateral negotiations were held in Geneva, Switzerland on Feb. 17-18, which were preceded by another two rounds of negotiations on Jan. 23-24 and Feb. 4-5 hosted in the UAE capital.

Although expectations for a breakthrough that ends Russia's full-scale war on Ukraine are low, US officials said on Monday that Moscow and Kyiv were privately showing "a little bit of flexibility" on the issue of who would control Ukraine's eastern regions in a postwar scenario.

Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law and part of the US delegation alongside peace envoy Steve Witkoff, said the talks would focus on addressing the "postwar security concerns" of both Russia and Ukraine.

"An important part of this process is encouraging all parties to begin thinking seriously about what comes after the war," Kushner wrote on X.

The framework being proposed includes security consultations and crisis communications hotlines, as well as "reciprocal de-escalation measures" between the two. The officials also floated the re-activation of the Nato-Russia Council that has been largely paused since 2022.

A key area of disagreement between the two involves Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk, which is by now mostly occupied by Russia.

Moscow has demanded that Ukraine relinquish the parts of Donetsk which it still holds, while Kyiv wants to freeze the contact line to maintain control over those sections, which it says are crucial to its future security.

“At the meetings in Abu Dhabi, our team will propose de-escalatory steps,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening video address late Monday.

Zelensky also highlighted the need for peace, security guarantees and resources for Ukraine’s postwar recovery.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the talks would focus on security guarantees, adding that European representatives would not participate because the negotiations were initially agreed upon as a trilateral format.

"What will take place in Abu Dhabi in the coming days is trilateral negotiations between Russia and Ukraine with US mediation. As for the presence of Europeans, you know that the Americans have their own channels of communication with Europeans, and Ukrainians with Europeans," he told reporters during a Monday press briefing.

However, the European Commission and NATO, along with the UK, France, Italy and Germany, will send representatives to Abu Dhabi, Umerov said.

Ahead of the meeting, the two US envoys met Ukrainian and European and Nato officials in Abu Dhabi, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot was adamant that France, the UK and Germany "will indeed be in the meeting room".

European officials are wary of Russia trying to secure a deal with the US on future "collective security" without them, and Moscow and Kyiv's positions on ending the conflict are still far apart.

The last round of trilateral talks, held in Geneva in February, ended without a breakthrough. Soon after, the US-Israel war on Iran diverted Washington's attention from Ukraine, and no other discussions were held since.

Since then, European leaders, who have been largely excluded from peace talks, have pushed to be involved in the process amid concerns that decisions about the security of their continent would be made without them.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged on Monday to include Nato allies and EU members in any "meaningful discussions about Europe's security architecture". President Zelensky has repeatedly stated Kyiv wanted Europe to be part of the talks.