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Negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the United States will meet in Abu Dhabi on Saturday for a second day of talks on a revised plan to end the war that began in 2022.
The first known direct contact between Ukrainian and Russian officials on the proposal began on Friday. 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."
The UAE Foreign Ministry said the talks were scheduled to last two days and were "part of ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis."
Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at 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.
Zelenskyy said Donbass territory remained a "key issue," adding that Russia had yet to show a genuine desire to end the war.
Putin has said Russia intends to gain full control of eastern Ukraine by force if talks fail. After Russia–U.S. talks in the Kremlin, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov said Moscow was "genuinely interested in resolving" the war diplomatically, but added that Russia would continue pursuing its objectives "on the battlefield."
The Kremlin renewed its demand that Ukraine withdraw from the eastern Donbas region after President Vladimir Putin met U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow.
"Russia’s position is well known: Ukrainian armed forces must leave the territory of the Donbas," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, describing it as "a very important condition."
Kyiv, which still controls around 20% of the region, has firmly rejected those terms.
The Abu Dhabi meeting is the first occasion on which Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have faced each other to discuss the Trump administration’s plan. The two sides last met in person in Istanbul last summer, in talks that resulted only in prisoner exchanges.
An initial U.S. draft drew heavy criticism in Kyiv and Western Europe for hewing too closely to Moscow’s line, while later versions prompted pushback from Russia for floating the idea of European peacekeepers.
Trump has previously pressured Ukraine to accept terms that Kyiv sees as capitulation and repeated this week his belief that Putin and Zelenskyy were close to a deal.
"I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done," Trump said.
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