A fresh round of high-stakes peace negotiations involving the United States, Ukraine, and Russia commenced on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi. This meeting marks the first such trilateral session since February, as the current US administration continues its push to resolve the nearly five-year conflict, even following its recent announcement of significant policy concessions toward Moscow. However, many – particularly in Europe – have cast doubt on Moscow’s intentions. According to john Herbst, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a former US ambassador to Ukraine,, Any expectations for the Abu Dhabi talks should be “very modest.”. With Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine now in its fifth year and gains on the battlefield remaining difficult to come by, Moscow has escalated its aerial attacks – with deadly results for Ukrainians.
While Russia has insisted on maintaining a strictly trilateral format for the primary discussions, the venue is hosting a broader contingent of observers. National security advisers from several European nations, alongside representatives from NATO and the European Commission, are present in the United Arab Emirates and held preliminary meetings with the American and Ukrainian delegations.
The American delegation is headed by Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy, alongside Jared Kushner. Representing Ukraine is the top negotiator and foreign intelligence chief, Rustem Umerov. Russia’s delegation, according to TASS, includes Deputy Foreign Ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov, and General Staff member Yuri Zhigarov.
The talks are unfolding against a backdrop of European anxiety regarding their exclusion from potential US-brokered security arrangements. Following comments by President Trump regarding a prospective security deal that “might involve all of Europe,” there has been a concerted effort by E4 nations—the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy—to secure a more influential role. The French Elysée Palace emphasized Tuesday that the pursuit of peace in Ukraine and European security remain inextricably linked. According to “The hope today is not only to discuss the bilateral issues between the countries, and how do we end the war and bring some good humanitarian relief, but it’s also how do we create the right security relationships between Ukraine and Russia and Europe,” US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and US negotiator Jared Kushner, At the outset of Tuesday’s talks. With Umerov saying Monday that Ukraine was “doing everything we can to ensure that Europe is a participant in the diplomatic process.”, europe has long been wary of any US-brokered peace deal negotiated without its involvement. “They are only taking place because Putin wants to give Trump a reason to continue to distance himself from Ukraine,” Herbst wrote last week. Marking one of the deadliest single incidents of the war to date, at least 55 people were killed last Monday when Russia dropped several bombs on a school building used as a shelter and aid center in Zaporizhzhia. With more than 2,700 killed in Russian strikes so far this year, according to ACLED, a global conflict monitor, civilian deaths in Ukraine are at their highest point since the start of the war. Russian attacks on the power grid left more than 600,000 people in the Dnipropetrovsk region without electricity overnight into Sunday, Zelensky said, as temperatures plummet and winter draws in. And continuing a pattern seen in previous years, Russian drones and missiles are already hitting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, but harder and earlier than in other winters, analysts say. Over the past few months, Russia has deployed faster, jet-powered Shahed drones, which are harder to shoot down. More missiles are slipping through Ukraine’s air defenses as Kyiv grapples with a chronic shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors that are one of the few defensive weapons capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, at the same time. The Trump administration’s relationship with Kyiv has been decidedly more complicated, where the Biden administration positioned the US as Ukraine’s biggest single donor and most powerful ally. Including one to supply markets with Russia’s diesel, in a sharp break from the sanctions aimed at punishing and isolating the Russian economy, and pressur, he has shown a willingness to strike business deals with Moscow. According to so, as Democrats prepare to take control of Congress, Zelensky has publicly, He hopes the “blue wave” can bolster US support for Ukraine since the party “speaks very clearly about supporting Ukraine and providing ass. Which skyrocketed due to the Iran war and contributed to the Republicans’ landslide defeat in last week’s midterms, undergirding all this recent tension has been Trump’s sensitivity to rising gas prices. Kit Maher, Charlotte Reck, Ivana Kottasová, Tim Lister, Matthew Chance, Pierre Bairin, Victoria Butenko and Lauren Kent contributed reporting.
Despite the diplomatic activity, significant hurdles remain. European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas expressed deep skepticism on Monday, stating there is little evidence that the Kremlin is prepared to engage in good faith. This sentiment aligns with previous frustrations; earlier this year, President Volodymyr Zelensky noted that past trilateral meetings in Geneva failed to address sensitive political compromises and the necessary meetings between heads of state.
The Kremlin’s stance remains rigid. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reiterated that the discussions are fundamentally trilateral, though he acknowledged that Europe maintains its own communication channels with Kyiv and Washington. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is reportedly continuing to push maximalist demands that were previously rejected by the Ukrainian leadership. Including Russian control over Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, a reduction in the size of Ukraine’s military and the abandonment of Kyiv’s ambitions to join NATO, putin is still making maximalist demands previously rejected by Kyiv. In October too, Ukraine’s ability to use Starshield, a military-grade version of Elon Musk’s Starlink service that is critical to its military operations, was hampered when speed limits were imposed on the satellite terminals.
Adding to the tension, President Zelensky has recently faced strain with his Western allies, including disputes over intelligence sharing prior to missile attacks. Furthermore, in a recent “60 Minutes” interview, President Trump declined to comment on his level of trust toward Zelensky or Putin, while suggesting that a potential peace outcome might result in a different territorial map for Ukraine—a scenario Zelensky has consistently rejected. While the intelligence and technology support it still provides has come under strain in recent weeks too, it halted financial aid to Ukraine at the beginning of 2025.
As the administration navigates these complexities, it remains unclear whether the US will offer explicit security guarantees as part of the negotiations. Witkoff noted on social media that the participants reaffirmed a shared commitment to post-war European security architecture, stressing that a strong NATO is essential to collective defense. However, with three prior rounds of trilateral talks having concluded without a breakthrough, the path toward a durable resolution appears as difficult as ever. The US later postponed a round of trilateral talks that were expected to take place in March due to the war in Iran.
