ABU DHABI: Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for their first US-brokered talks since February, after President Donald Trump suggested last week that a broad deal was possible on ending the war in Ukraine and guaranteeing security in Europe.
US envoy Jared Kushner told delegates that recent contacts with both sides had “really identified, narrowed the gaps”, and that Trump was committed to achieving peace.
“He really has asked us to put extra effort into trying to find a solution that hopefully ends the war but also leaves both sides in a much stronger position to start pursuing the full potential of what their two amazing countries have the ability to reach,” Kushner said at the start of the meeting.
But more than 4-1/2 years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and with Russian forces holding about a fifth of the country, Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart – despite Trump’s optimism – on terms for a possible settlement.
Ukraine’s chief delegate, Rustem Umerov, said in his opening remarks that Kyiv was focused on achieving security guarantees and a lasting peace.
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Russian delegation chief Vladimir Medinsky said Moscow hoped for progress towards peace in the interest of the peoples of both countries.
The new American drive for a deal has galvanised European officials into pushing for a place at the table to seek an end to the continent’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.
Before the start of the main meeting, the Ukrainians met separately with European, Nato and EU representatives and the two American envoys, Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
France said there could be no lasting peace in Ukraine without addressing European security, and that this required the involvement of the Europeans.
Russia had made clear it did not see a place for Europeans at the meeting with the Ukrainians and Americans.
On the eve of the talks, Trump said Washington was seeing a “very strong inclination” towards ending the war, and that both sides were “tired of fighting.”
After meeting privately with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy last week at the White House, Trump predicted that a peace deal could emerge soon.
Trump has frequently said an agreement was close, without a deal emerging.
However, negotiations have picked up again in recent weeks after months in which Washington’s attention was focused on the war in Iran.
Publicly, there has been no sign that Putin is willing to drop his insistence that Ukraine surrender the entire eastern region of Donbas before a peace deal can be struck.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has refused to hand over land that his forces have died defending.
Russian front-line advances have slowed to a virtual halt this year but Moscow has been pounding Ukrainian cities and energy facilities, while Ukraine has stepped up attacks on oil refineries and other infrastructure deep inside Russia.
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A source in the Russian delegation said Russia believed the main thrust of the talks would be trying to hammer out the key elements of a new post-war security framework for Europe.
On the eve of the negotiations, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s leverage in the talks was increasing as a result of its recent battlefield performance, which has included retaking some territory in Donetsk, a coal-mining area of the Donbas.
“Ukrainian forces are currently genuinely strengthening Ukraine’s negotiating position,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Monday.
He said Russia was suffering “record losses” — an assertion disputed by Moscow — and urged Washington to convince the Kremlin to end the war.
US negotiators believe that Zelenskyy and Putin may be willing to strike a compromise on the vital question of territory, each ceding a little, a US official told Reuters.
Under the proposed deal, Ukraine would get an end to the war, security guarantees and a roadmap to accession to the EU.
A senior Ukrainian official strongly denied that the government would consider any such concessions.
The issue of territory could be discussed only at a leaders’ level and only in the context of appropriate security guarantees for Ukraine, the official said.