US, Russia and Ukraine open trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on ending the war

Trilateral talks between Ukrainian, Russian and US negotiators open on Tuesday, 10 November, in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The aim is to end Russia's war against Ukraine, which has lasted more than four and a half years. These are the first substantive talks on the issue since February and are scheduled to run for two days.

The American delegation will be led by US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who is also President Donald Trump's son-in-law. The Ukrainian side is headed by Rustem Umerov, the chief of foreign intelligence. Before the trilateral meeting, the two US envoys met Ukrainian and European officials in Abu Dhabi.

Zelenskyy: battlefield results strengthen position

In his nightly video address on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces were genuinely strengthening the country's negotiating position. He said every task fully accomplished and every defensive operation that adds to Ukraine's strength and delivers results also strengthens Kyiv at the negotiating table. Zelenskyy said Russian forces had recently been suffering heavy losses.

On Monday in Washington, Trump said the US was seeing a "very strong inclination" towards ending the war and that both sides were "tired of fighting".

Security guarantees and the territorial question

A US official said security guarantees for Ukraine would be a central topic, including the potential for a Nato-style Article 5 defence, which protects member states in the event of an attack. Any territorial agreement would probably come at the end of the negotiations, once other matters, including a postwar security architecture, had been settled.

However, both Ukraine and Russia have been adamant on territory, and neither side was willing to make major concessions in earlier rounds of diplomacy. Ukraine wants Russia pushed back to the original border between the two countries, while Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to take all of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

The European role

European officials, including from France, Germany and the European Commission, will not take part directly in the negotiations, at Russia's insistence. The Ukrainian delegation will instead meet them separately to brief them on progress. European officials, largely excluded from peace talks, had wanted to be directly involved amid concerns that the US administration could try to force through a deal favourable to Russia.

Umerov said in a social media post that Ukraine's key priorities are ending the fighting, securing reliable postwar security guarantees, ensuring Ukraine's economic recovery and development, and taking humanitarian steps.