Negotiators from Moscow, kyiv and Washington are holding talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported. Tuesday’s meeting in the UAE capital is the third round of talks there this year, following security consultations held in January and February. The US delegation is led by President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who have led the mediation. Russia’s delegation is led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, while Ukraine is represented by a team headed by Rustem Umerov, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service. The three delegations last met in Geneva on February 18. Ahead of the talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said recent advances on the battlefield had strengthened his country’s position. he said in his late-night video address on Monday. He said Russia was “suffering record losses,” a claim Moscow disputes, and urged Washington to persuade the Kremlin to end the war. Zelenskyy said the head of the armed forces, Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi, had submitted a report on Ukraine’s military positions that noted heavy recent Russian losses. Zelenskyy also said kyiv’s long-range strikes against targets inside Russia, including oil facilities, were having an effect. “We are responding to Russia’s war in a completely justified way and demonstrating that this war must end,” he said. “Russia can do this. It can end its war. It is important that the United States convince Russia of precisely this.” ‘Strong inclination’ In Washington, D.C., Trump told reporters that he saw a “very strong inclination” toward ending the war and that both sides were “tired of fighting.” years after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022. A U.S. official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said Monday that both Moscow and kyiv had privately shown some flexibility in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory. Security guarantees for Ukraine would be a central issue, the official said, including the possibility of a defense commitment inspired by Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty. Both Ukraine and Russia have been inflexible regarding territory. Ukraine wants Russia to return to the original border between the two countries, while Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to obtain the entire Donbas region of Ukraine. Russia occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine, including Crimea and parts of eastern Donbas. Moscow’s claims to the Ukrainian regions it has occupied have not been recognized by the international community, but Trump has previously urged kyiv to give up territory to reach a deal to end the war. The U.S. official said any territorial deal would likely come at the end of negotiations, once other issues, including a postwar security framework, have been resolved. “And that’s what we’ve been trying to do all along: try to be creative and find ways to help end that conflict and that war,” Rubio said. European powers, including France, Germany and the European Commission, said they would send officials to the talks in Abu Dhabi, but Russia made clear it did not want Europeans involved in the negotiations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the talks would focus on security guarantees. European officials would not be involved, he added, because the negotiations had been agreed in a tripartite format. “What will take place in Abu Dhabi in the coming days will be trilateral negotiations between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the United States,” Peskov said. “As for the presence of Europeans, you know that the Americans have their own channels of communication with the Europeans and the Ukrainians with the Europeans.”
