Delegations from Ukraine, Russia, and the United States are meeting for the first time under a new trilateral format to discuss the possibilities for peace, with discussions expected to focus on the future of the Donbas region.
Last-minute peace talks are taking place in United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday, with delegations flying directly to the summit from other meetings yesterday in Davos and Moscow, to try and thrash out conditions for peace in the Ukraine War. Two sets of talks are understood to be planned in Abu Dhabi, with a bilateral working group format between Russia and the United States meeting, and a new trilateral working group between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States meeting for the first time.
Meetings are already underway in what is thought to be the first face-to-face conference between the three nations of the nearly four-year-long war. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said overnight a focus for discussions is to be the Donbas, a coal-rich region that encompasses the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Russia occupies the vast majority of Donbas, and has held some areas — such as around Donetsk city — for nearly 12 years, and demands Ukraine withdraw its armed forces from Donbas altogether to end the war.
President Zelensky said, Ukrainian state media states: “The issue of Donbas is key. It will be discussed, as well as the modality of how the three sides see it in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow… I spoke with the team, with the head of the team, Umerov, in the morning and at night. He will work and at every stage of certain talks or agreements will give me the appropriate signals”.
Neither President Zelensky or Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will personally be present in Abu Dhabi, and both leaders have sent large delegations to represent them. Ukraine’s is headed by close Zelensky ally Rustem Umerov, the head of Kyiv’s National Security council, former minister of defence, and telecoms entrepreneur. Russia said it sent an “all military” delegation led by spy chief Admiral Igor Kostyukov.
The United States, meanwhile, has sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner directly from Moscow where they met with Russia’s President Putin yesterday in what the Kremlin described as a four-hour meeting. Former Russian Ambassador to the United States Yuri Ushakov, who was present at the Moscow talks, was reported as having said of the meeting: “I would describe it as utterly frank and based on trust… The meeting that has just concluded at the Kremlin was useful in all aspects, both for us and the United States. The meeting’s participants agreed that Russia and the US would maintain close contact on Ukraine and other issues”.
But underlining the importance of Russia gaining total control of Ukraine’s eastern regions like the Donbas, Ushakov added of expectations for today’s talks: “a long-term solution should not be expected to be achieved unless the territorial issue is resolved”.
Breitbart News reported in 2025 when Russia articulated its Donbas demand during the Putin-Trump Alaska meeting. At the time, Putin is stated to have warned he intended to take the full region militarily anyway, although six months later some parts still remain unoccupied. At the time, President Zelensky vowed to never surrender territory, and decried talks as having taken place without his being in the room.
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