Ukraine-Russia-US talks open in Abu Dhabi with territory as key issue

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy says territorial disputes volition beryllium central, but Russia indispensable beryllium acceptable to extremity warfare it started.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators person begun talks successful the United Arab Emirates, with the cardinal contented of territory dominating the docket arsenic the United States pushes for an statement to extremity the astir four-year war.

The discussions successful Abu Dhabi connected Friday were the archetypal nonstop nationalist negotiations betwixt Moscow and Kyiv connected a program being pushed by US President Donald Trump’s medication to extremity the conflict.

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“The talks commenced contiguous successful Abu Dhabi and are scheduled to proceed implicit 2 days, arsenic portion of ongoing efforts to beforehand dialog and place governmental solutions to the crisis,” the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said successful a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said territorial disputes would beryllium a cardinal contented successful the discussions but stressed that “the astir important happening is that Russia should beryllium acceptable to extremity this war, which it started”.

In a connection shared connected Telegram, Zelenskyy said helium was successful regular interaction with the Ukrainian delegation, but it was excessively aboriginal to gully conclusions from Friday’s talks.

“We’ll spot however the speech goes time and what the result volition be,” helium said.

The discussions successful the Emirati superior came a time aft Zelenskyy met with Trump astatine the World Economic Forum successful Davos, Switzerland – and hours aft US envoy Steve Witkoff held late-night talks with Russian person Vladimir Putin astatine the Kremlin.

Reporting from the Russian superior Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Yulia Shapovalova said the talks betwixt Putin and Witkoff lasted astir 4 hours but did not resoluteness the main sticking points to reaching a woody – namely, territorial disputes and information guarantees.

“Russia demands that the Ukrainian service permission the Donbas region, which is unacceptable to Ukraine,” Shapovalova explained.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said connected Friday that Russia’s insistence connected Ukraine yielding each of Donbas – including the 20 percent of Donetsk which is inactive nether Ukrainian power – was “a precise important condition”.

Kremlin overseas affairs advisor Yury Ushakov, who participated successful Putin’s gathering with Witkoff, besides said “it was reaffirmed that reaching a semipermanent colony can’t beryllium expected without solving the territorial issue”.

Meanwhile, Russia’s state-run TASS quality bureau reported that the discussions successful Abu Dhabi included imaginable buffer zones and monitoring mechanisms.

For its part, Ukraine has demanded information guarantees from its Western allies, including the US, should a woody to extremity the warfare beryllium signed, successful bid to deter Russia from invading again.

Ukrainians person faced widescale powerfulness outages this wintertime arsenic Russian attacks connected the superior Kyiv and different parts of the state people vigor infrastructure, leaving thousands of families struggling to enactment lukewarm successful freezing temperatures.

Before Friday’s talks began, Ukraine said Russian strikes had killed 3 radical successful the Kharkiv portion and 4 radical – including a begetter and his five-year-old lad – overnight successful the east.

Despite the continued fighting, Trump said this week that helium believed some Putin and Zelenskyy wanted to scope an statement to extremity the war.

“I judge they’re astatine a constituent present wherever they tin travel unneurotic and get a woody done. And if they don’t, they’re anserine – that goes for some of them,” the US president said.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are past known to person met face-to-face successful Istanbul past summer, successful talks that ended lone successful deals to exchange captured soldiers.

The Kremlin said Russia’s delegation astatine the UAE talks, headed by Admiral Igor Kostyukov, is comprised of subject officials, portion Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev volition clasp abstracted talks with Witkoff connected economical issues.

The US has confirmed that Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner are attending the talks on with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and NATO’s apical general, US Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich.

The Ukrainian squad includes Rustem Umerov, caput of Ukraine’s nationalist information and defence council; Andrii Hnatov, main of the wide staff, and Kyrylo Budanov, caput of the statesmanlike office.