Russia and Ukraine resume direct talks in Abu Dhabi, first since February

Talks open after a heavy night of strikes

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine began talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, 10 November, under US mediation, with envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner present. The two-day round is the first direct meeting between Moscow and Kyiv since February. The opening came after a Russian attack involving more than 300 drones, which left numerous dead in the Odesa region and caused hours-long power cuts across several regions. Ukraine answered with hundreds of its own drones crossing the border, and a refinery near Leningrad caught fire. In the Oval Office in early November, Trump promised a large agreement that would involve more than Ukraine, and in a TV interview he described Ukrainian territorial concessions to Russia as unavoidable.

A new security order at the centre

Kushner used the opening session to argue for a new security architecture for Europe, saying the aim was a lasting framework for Russia, Ukraine and Europe that could secure decades, if not centuries, of peace. He said the initiative would build on existing institutions and commitments and would not replace NATO. According to an insider in the Russian delegation, Moscow's core aim is a comprehensive and indivisible security architecture for the whole continent, with Ukraine treated as only one part of that debate. A source cited by the Financial Times reported that Putin wants further territorial concessions from Kyiv, though it remains unclear which. Possibilities include Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which Russia has not fully captured, the annexed Crimea, or more land that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded in January. The Kremlin reportedly links these demands to whether Kyiv accepts NATO security guarantees.

Kyiv's narrow path and European unease

President Wolodymyr Selenskyj has little room to manoeuvre. Ukraine needs the Americans militarily and financially, yet it fears a deal struck over the heads of Ukrainians, and Trump's remarks about a changed map of Ukraine have sharpened that fear. In a CNN interview, Selenskyj called the ideas dangerous and objected to the sequence the Americans proposed. He wants the war ended first, then security guarantees for Ukraine, and only afterwards a security infrastructure for the EU and Russia. Before the trilateral session, Ukrainian chief negotiator Rustem Umerow said representatives of Germany, France, Britain, Italy, the EU and NATO joined a separate meeting with the Ukrainian delegation and the two US envoys. European capitals are still not at the negotiating table, and German government circles say crisis diplomacy with Washington and the E3 partners France and Britain has been running for weeks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskow argued that the Americans and Ukrainians have their own channels to Europeans and are building a separate coordination mechanism, while insisting the Abu Dhabi format is trilateral. Pro-Kremlin commentator Sergei Markov called EU participation brazen and described Germany, France and Britain as a warring party.

Earlier rounds and what comes next

The current round follows a long run of failed attempts since the invasion of 24 February 2022. The first talks, held in Belarus on 28 February 2022, lasted two weeks and produced only humanitarian corridors for civilians. Trump and Putin spoke by phone on 12 February 2025, ending a three-year US effort to isolate Putin. US and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia on 18 February 2025 without Ukrainian representatives, and on 11 March 2025 a US-proposed 30-day ceasefire, which Kyiv accepted, was effectively rejected by Putin two days later.

Trump reportedly hopes for joint images with Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in Shenzhen in mid-November, and Abu Dhabi is meant to be only the start of several meetings.