The Kremlin said U.S.-brokered trilateral talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in the United Arab Emirates over the weekend were held in a “constructive spirit,” but cautioned that no early breakthrough should be expected as core territorial disputes remain unresolved.
“It would be a mistake to expect any significant results from the initial contacts,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, calling the opening exchanges positive while adding there was “significant work ahead.” He underscored that territory remains a fundamental issue for Moscow in any prospective deal.
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President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said Russia intends to take all of Ukraine’s Donbas region—unless Kyiv cedes it in a peace agreement—an area Russia says its forces mostly control. Kyiv has consistently rejected ceding land that Moscow has not won on the battlefield.
Russia has framed its demands around what it calls the “Anchorage formula,” which it says was agreed between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and Putin at a summit in Alaska last August. According to that purported understanding, Ukraine would hand Russia full control of Donbas and freeze front lines elsewhere in the east and south as a condition for any future peace deal. Kyiv has not acknowledged such an arrangement.
Germany cautioned that the talks will struggle to progress if Moscow does not shift on its maximalist demands. “What I am hearing and reading today, including from the negotiations in the United Arab Emirates, is only Russia’s stubborn insistence on the crucial territorial issue,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said during a visit to Latvia. “And if there is no flexibility here, I fear that the negotiations may still take a long time or may not be successful at this stage.”
Wadephul welcomed Washington’s mediation but said Europe must be directly involved in any decisions shaping the continent’s security order. “It is clear that Europe must be at the table when decisions are made about the security order of our continent — and Russia must know that our commitment to diplomacy does not come at the expense of our determination to support Ukraine,” he said, calling it “a decisive moment for the future of our European continent.”
Even as diplomatic efforts resumed, the war’s front lines extended into Russia’s energy infrastructure. Two enterprises caught fire and one person was injured overnight in the city of Slavyansk-on-Kuban in Russia’s Krasnodar region after drone fragments fell on them, the regional emergencies center said.
Ukraine’s military said it struck the Slavyansk Eko oil refinery in Krasnodar, reporting “strike drones were recorded hitting the plant’s territory and explosions were heard in the target area.” The statement said preliminary information indicated elements of the primary oil processing unit were hit. The refinery has a capacity of roughly 100,000 barrels per day, supplying fuel for domestic use and export.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses intercepted and destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 34 over the Krasnodar region. The claims could not be independently verified.
The talks in the UAE mark a rare, U.S.-mediated channel between the belligerents after months of battlefield attrition and sporadic cross-border strikes. For now, Moscow’s insistence on territorial concessions, Kyiv’s refusal to yield land, and Europe’s push to be seated at the table frame a diplomatic track that is open but narrow. Whether the “constructive spirit” survives will depend on movement on the map — or a willingness by the parties to redefine it at the negotiating table.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
