The negotiations had been planned for Sunday but were moved due to scheduling issues, Dmitry Peskov has said
The second round of trilateral talks between Russian, Ukrainian, and US delegations will take place in Abu Dhabi later this week, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said. He cited scheduling issues as the reason for the postponement of the talks, which had been planned for Sunday.
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky said on Sunday that the meeting in the UAE capital had been rescheduled for February 4 and 5.
Peskov told journalists on Monday that “negotiations in Abu Dhabi were indeed planned for Sunday, but additional coordination of the schedules of the three parties was required.”
The second round of the trilateral talks will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, he said. “We can confirm this.”
The initial round of trilateral negotiations, held in Abu Dhabi on January 23 and 24, marked the first time that representatives from Moscow, Kiev, and Washington had sat down together since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Despite the meeting being described as “constructive,” it failed to produce any concrete agreements.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said territorial issues remain “a bridge we haven’t crossed,” adding that “there’s active work going on to try and see if both sides’ views on that can be reconciled.”
Moscow insists any settlement must include Ukraine’s withdrawal from Donbass regions that voted to join Russia in 2022 referendums and recognition of the country’s new borders, including Crimea. Zelensky has repeatedly said that “under no circumstances” will Kiev agree to any territorial concessions.
While calling a diplomatic solution preferable, Russia says it is ready to achieve its goals through military means if the talks fail.
The postponement of the Abu Dhabi talks followed a surprise trip to Florida on Saturday by Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, where he met with US envoy Steve Witkoff, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and White House Senior Adviser Josh Gruenbaum.
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Witkoff said Washington was “encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine.” Dmitriev described the discussions as “constructive.”
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