U.S.-Russia-Ukraine Talks Formally Open in Abu Dhabi Tuesday, First Since February, as Jared Kushner Says the Goal Is Not Only to End the War but a "New Framework" of Security Between Ukraine, Russia and Europe to Secure "Decades, If Not Centuries, of Peace"
Three-way talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States opened Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, the first such meeting since February, as Washington renews its push to end the war that followed Moscow's all-out invasion nearly five years ago.
The two-day session in the capital of the United Arab Emirates will focus on security guarantees, the White House said before the discussions. Russia sees NATO as a threat, and Ukraine wants to prevent future Russian invasions. Hopes of progress are tempered by the absence of any significant breakthroughs in three previous rounds of talks early this year.
President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, said on X that he and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff were working on a "negotiated solution that can deliver lasting peace and create the conditions for a sovereign, secure, and prosperous Ukraine within a more stable European security environment." Kushner said Monday that a "comprehensive and lasting settlement will also require direct engagement between Russia and our European partners on the broader security arrangements that affect them," and that the Abu Dhabi discussions will set the stage for that engagement to begin in the near future. Witkoff's office said Tuesday that negotiators have begun the round focused on technical aspects and proposals for a framework for security guarantees.
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, noted at the start of the talks that the Russian delegation "has become bigger and more professional," and expressed hope the meeting "will allow us to advance on the path towards peace in the interests of the people of Russia and the people of Ukraine." Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service who is leading Kyiv's delegation, said the day began with a meeting between the Ukrainian team, the U.S. envoys and representatives from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission. "We have begun our work in UAE," Umerov posted, saying his team is working on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's mandate to end the war with a just and lasting peace, with security guarantees.
The two governments remain far apart. Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to pull its troops back from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — the four regions Moscow annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured — and demands that Ukraine abandon its bid to join NATO, accept strict limits on its military and drop restrictions on the Russian language and the Moscow-affiliated Orthodox Church. Putin wants a comprehensive peace deal on those conditions and will not agree to a general halt in hostilities. Zelenskyy, who was visiting Denmark on Tuesday, rejects ceding territory Russia has not taken on the battlefield, rejects any limits on Ukraine's military or its arrangements with Western partners, and argues an immediate ceasefire is the necessary first step, with territorial issues settled only in a direct meeting between him and Putin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov welcomed the American approach: "We can only welcome the (U.S.) negotiators on President Donald Trump's request proposing to put the issue of collective security on top of the agenda of the talks on a Ukrainian settlement." Russia has objected to the Europeans' involvement in the three-way talks but said EU representatives could join at a later stage; some in the EU see Washington's proposals as too accommodating to Moscow.
The talks took place against a backdrop of new long-range strikes: Russia launched 162 drones and a ballistic missile at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine's air force said, while Russia's Ministry of Defense said its forces shot down 155 Ukrainian drones overnight over eight Russian regions and the Crimean Peninsula. For Americans, the stakes are direct: a settlement built on a wider European security framework is the administration's path to ending a war the United States has spent heavily to support, and to a Europe that carries more of its own defence — the outcome President Trump has said he is pushing for.
— Previously posted on Monday, November 9, 2026 —
Sunday, November 8, 2026
President Donald Trump predicted in a 60 Minutes interview broadcast Sunday that the Russia-Ukraine war will be settled, telling interviewer Ross Douthat that the biggest obstacle to peace is the personal hatred between Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
"It was the hatred between Zelenskyy and Putin," Trump said. "If I had been president that war would've never started. Zero chance. But it did start. So I inherited that war. I believe we're very close to making a deal." Asked who he trusts more, Putin or Zelenskyy, he answered: "Well, I'd rather not say, but I get along with both. I believe that that war is going to end, and it's gonna end soon. And the only reason it's gonna end is because of me."
The interview came just days before Ukrainian, Russian and American delegations were scheduled to meet in Abu Dhabi for the first time since February — the next test of whether the president's confidence becomes a signed settlement.
Trump also rejected the charge that he has taken pressure off Moscow. "There's been nobody that's been tougher on Russia than me," he said. "Look at our trade. Look what I've done to them on trade with the sanctions and everything else." Pressed on the claim that he had recently lifted diesel sanctions on Russia, he answered: "I didn't lift diesel sanctions. I made it possible for Russia to give not us, but to the world — thousands and thousands of barrels of oil, of diesel, which it needed. Didn't do any big favor."
Asked whether it would all work out with a free and independent Ukraine, Trump closed with the line that will be quoted on both sides of the Atlantic: "I think we're gonna have it done, and I think it's gonna happen and they're gonna end up with a little bit different shape Ukraine."
For American households, an end to Europe's war matters at home: the fighting has kept pressure on world energy and food prices for years, and a settlement on the president's terms would let Washington turn its money and attention back to problems inside America's own borders.
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