ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Russia, Ukraine and the United States reconvened in Abu Dhabi for a second day of talks on a plan backed by President Donald Trump to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine, as fresh Russian strikes left thousands of Kyiv residents without heat in sub-zero temperatures.
The meeting marks the first known direct contact between Ukrainian and Russian officials on the Trump proposal. Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said discussions focused “on the parameters for ending Russia’s war and the further logic of the negotiation process.”
- Advertisement -
The proposal has stirred controversy on both sides. An initial U.S. draft drew heavy criticism in Ukraine and western Europe for aligning too closely with Moscow’s position, while later versions prompted pushback from Russia for floating European peacekeepers, according to people familiar with the talks.
The United Arab Emirates Foreign Ministry said the sessions were scheduled to span two days and were “part of ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis.”
Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff later held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. Hours after Putin met Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Moscow, the Kremlin restated a core demand that Ukraine’s 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, calling it “a very important condition.” Ukraine, which still controls about 20% of the region, has rejected such terms.
Zelensky said ahead of the Abu Dhabi sessions that territory remains a “key issue” in any agreement. In an online post, 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.”
Even as diplomacy accelerates, the costs of the conflict remained immediate. Kyiv authorities said further Russian strikes overnight killed one person and injured 22 others in the capital and in the northeastern city of Kharkiv. “Kyiv is under a massive enemy attack,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram, urging residents to shelter as several non-residential buildings were hit.
The strikes compounded a heating crisis in the capital, where thousands have been left without warmth amid freezing weather. The European Union, which has shipped hundreds of generators to Ukraine, accused Russia of “deliberately depriving civilians of heat.”
The Abu Dhabi meeting is the first time Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have faced each other to discuss the Trump administration’s plan. Their most recent known face-to-face encounter, in Istanbul last summer, yielded agreements limited to prisoner exchanges rather than a broader political settlement.
Putin has repeatedly said Moscow will seek full control of eastern Ukraine by force if talks fail. After the Kremlin meeting with Witkoff, top Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said Russia was “genuinely interested in resolving” the war through diplomacy, but added, “Until that happens, Russia will continue to achieve its objectives … on the battlefield.”
Trump has previously pressured Kyiv to accept terms the Ukrainian government views as capitulation. On Wednesday, he said he believes Putin and Zelensky are close to a deal. “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 parties remain deeply split over territorial control, a divide that has thwarted prior initiatives and now hangs over the Abu Dhabi talks. The UAE has framed the meetings as part of a wider effort to keep channels open, even as the war—Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II—grinds on.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
