The United States, Ukraine and Russia held their first round of trilateral talks in about nine months Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, aimed at ending the war that started when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the ongoing, full-scale invasion of the neighboring nation.
After the first of two days of talks set to focus on security guarantees — a long-running demand from Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — it was clear neither side expected an imminent breakthrough, but Zelenskyy called the discussions “constructive and quite substantive.”
President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said in a post on X ahead of the meetings that he and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff were “working hard to find 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 indicated this round of talks in the United Arab Emirates capital was just an initial step, but one he said could “build momentum” toward future negotiations. He also suggested a future agreement would involve a security arrangement involving European countries and Russia.
But Russia and Ukraine seemed to pour cold water on the initiative after Tuesday’s round of talks.
Russia’s veteran Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow rejected European demands for a ceasefire in Ukraine, accusing Brussels, where the European Union is based, of trying to “buy time” for Kyiv.
“We will not agree to this,” he said.
Lavrov said Moscow does not want to prevent the U.S. from engaging with Europe on the Ukraine war, but Russia does not consider it to be the best approach.
Grigory SYSOYEV/RIA NOVOSTI/AFP/Getty 
Ukraine argues an immediate ceasefire is the necessary first step toward negotiating a wider settlement and a direct meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy is the only way territorial issues can be settled.
Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegrammeanwhile, that the U.S. had asked if Kyiv would be willing to “trade the Donbas for security,” referring to a vast eastern region of Ukraine that Russia has largely occupied by force. So far, Ukraine has insisted it should be allowed to keep the region as part of a peace deal. But he said in exchange for the proposed territorial concession, the U.S. was not willing to accept that Ukraine should become a member of the NATO alliance, instead suggesting Kyiv should settle for “something similar.”
“No one believes that Putin will stop if we give up the Donbas,” Zelenksyy said. “He might pause — but then he will return in a year, two years or five years. And who will be to blame then?”
In a subsequent statement, also shared onlineZelenskyy called the first round constructive and said the two sides had “managed to discuss the necessity and possible parameters of humanitarian measures,” including another possible mutual release of prisoners of war.
“We discussed in detail the substance of security guarantees for Ukraine and the foundations for their long-term effectiveness,” he said, adding that Ukraine needed “practical mechanisms to prevent any recurrence of the war.”
Putin has previously said he wants Ukraine to pull its troops back from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, the four regions of the Donbas that Moscow illegally declared its territory in September 2022, but never fully captured. He has also long demanded 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 in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy has consistently rejected Putin’s demands to cede territory Russia hasn’t been able to take on the battlefield. Zelenskyy has also rejected any limits being placed on Ukraine’s military, or its arrangements with Western partners, which Kyiv sees as essential security guarantees to stop Moscow from invading again.
The U.S., Russia and Ukraine have held three other rounds of trilateral talks this year — the first in January and second in February — but diplomatic efforts largely stalled after President Trump decided to launch, alongside Israel, the ongoing war with Iran. Since then, Witkoff and Kushner have held various separate meetings with Putin and Zelenskyy.
In October, first lady Melania Trump’s office said she had secured a temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine for the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky for humanitarian reasons. It lasted from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1.
Source: www.cbsnews.com
