ABU DHABI — Negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the United States met in the United Arab Emirates on Friday for a second day of talks on a plan backed by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the almost four-year war, even as Russian strikes left thousands in Kyiv without heat amid sub-zero temperatures.
The UAE Foreign Ministry said the meetings in Abu Dhabi were scheduled to last two days and were “part of ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis.” The first known direct contact between Ukrainian and Russian officials on the Trump proposal began Thursday.
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Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said the discussions focused “on the parameters for ending Russia’s war and the further logic of the negotiation process.” Diplomats familiar with earlier drafts say an initial U.S. outline drew heavy criticism in Kyiv and Western Europe for tracking too closely to Moscow’s position, while later iterations that floated European peacekeepers prompted pushback from Russia.
Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff later held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. The meeting in Moscow also involved Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to the Kremlin.
The diplomacy gained momentum as strikes intensified. Kyiv authorities said further Russian attacks overnight killed one person and injured 22 in the capital and the northeastern city of Kharkiv. “Kyiv is under a massive enemy attack,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on Telegram, urging residents to remain in shelters. The European Union, which has sent hundreds of generators to Ukraine, accused Russia of “deliberately depriving civilians of heat.”
While negotiators worked through the broad contours of a potential settlement, the parties remained far apart on core territorial issues. Hours after Putin met Witkoff, the Kremlin reiterated its demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the eastern Donbas region. “Russia’s position is well known on the fact that Ukraine, Ukrainian armed forces, have to leave the territory of the Donbas,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. “This is a very important condition.” Ukraine, which still controls around 20% of the region, has rejected such terms.
Territory is a “key issue,” Zelensky told reporters ahead of the talks, underscoring the political and military stakes for Kyiv. In a later post online, he added: “It is necessary that not only Ukraine has the desire to end the war and achieve full security, but that a similar desire somehow emerges in Russia as well.”
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators last met face-to-face in Istanbul last summer, a round that yielded limited agreements on prisoner exchanges. The Abu Dhabi discussions mark the first time representatives have sat down specifically to address the Trump administration’s plan.
Putin has repeatedly said that if talks fail, Moscow intends to take full control of eastern Ukraine by force. After the Kremlin session with the U.S. delegation, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said Russia is “genuinely interested in resolving” the war diplomatically, but added, “Until that happens, Russia will continue to achieve its objectives … on the battlefield.”
Trump has previously pressed Ukraine to accept terms that Kyiv views as capitulation. He reiterated Wednesday his belief that Putin and Zelensky are close to an agreement. “I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done. And if they don’t, they’re stupid — that goes for both of them,” he said.
The U.S.-brokered push in Abu Dhabi arrives with both risk and urgency: a winter of rolling blackouts and infrastructure attacks across Ukraine, and a negotiating table still dominated by the unresolved question of who controls the Donbas. Whether this round can narrow that gap may determine if the war moves toward a cease-fire — or deeper into a grinding status quo defined by missile salvos, battered grids and battlefield attrition.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
