Delegations from Moscow and Kyiv are scheduled to convene in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for a new round of United States-mediated peace talks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has argued that recent advances on the battlefield have improved his country’s position at the negotiating table.
The session in the UAE capital will be the third round of talks held there this year, after security consultations in January and February. Washington’s mediation has been led by President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
Zelenskyy cites battlefield gains and Russian losses
The three delegations last met in Geneva on February 18. In his nightly video address on Monday, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces were “genuinely strengthening Ukraine’s negotiating position” and claimed Russia was “suffering record losses”. Moscow disputes the latter assertion.
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Zelenskyy said General Mykhailo Drapatyi had presented a report on Ukraine’s military positions, which pointed to heavy Russian losses in recent fighting. He also said Ukraine’s long-range strikes on targets inside Russia, among them oil facilities, were having an effect.
He urged Washington to press the Kremlin to bring the war to an end. “Russia can do this. It can end its war,” he said, adding that it was important for the United States to convince Moscow of exactly that.
In Washington, Trump told reporters he saw a “very strong inclination” toward ending the conflict and said both sides were “tired of fighting”. “We’re having a very good conversation about that in Abu Dhabi,” he said.
Territory and security guarantees remain contentious
Trump had pledged to end the war quickly after taking office in January 2025, yet no settlement has emerged nearly five years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
A US official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said on Monday that both sides had privately displayed some flexibility regarding a possible exchange of territory. The official said security guarantees for Ukraine would be a core subject, including a possible defence commitment modelled on Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty.
Both countries have been firm on territory. Ukraine wants Russia pushed back to the original border between the two countries, while President Vladimir Putin wants to obtain all of the Donbas region.
Russia occupies roughly 20 percent of Ukraine, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region. The international community has not recognised Moscow’s move, although Trump has previously urged Kyiv to cede territory to secure a deal.
The US official said any territorial arrangement would most likely be reached at the end of the negotiations, once other issues, including a post-war security framework, had been settled.
Rubio, delegation makeup and the European role
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a cautious tone, saying the process to end the war still has “a ways to go”. “We’ll keep trying,” Rubio said, adding that the aim was to find creative ways to help bring the conflict to an end.
Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, will again lead Kyiv’s delegation, according to reports. Russia’s team will be headed by Vladimir Medinsky, a Kremlin aide, and will include Sergei Ryabkov, a deputy foreign minister, and Yuri Zhigarlovsky, a senior military officer.
European powers, including France, Germany and the European Commission, will send officials to Abu Dhabi, although Russia has made clear it does not want Europeans taking part in the negotiations.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the talks would focus on security guarantees. European officials would not take part, he added, because the negotiations had been agreed as a three-way format. “What will take place in Abu Dhabi in the coming days is trilateral negotiations between Russia and Ukraine with US mediation,” Peskov said, adding that the Americans and Ukrainians each maintain their own channels of communication with Europe.
