US, Russia and Ukraine wrap up Abu Dhabi talks

Kyrylo Budanov described the talks in Abu Dhabi as “tough.” 

“Ukraine’s position remains unchanged,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff said on Telegram.

“The war must be brought to a halt, and an effective security architecture must be established — on that ensures a lasting peace and makes any recurrence of Russian aggression impossible.” 

He said returning Ukrainian prisoners was a “specific focus” of the talks, seemingly a reference to the prisoner swap plans, saying “we have achieved a significant result in this regard.” 

Budanov also thanked US negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff “for their professionalism, persistence, and efforts in seeking solutions,” and thanked the UAE for hosting the talks and supporting the process. 

Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Alexander Darchiev, has died “suddenly” at the age of 66, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. 

Darchiev was quite new in the job, having been appointed in March 2025 shortly after Donald Trump’s return to the White House. From 2021 to 2024, he was ambassador to Canada.

The ministry called Darchiev an “outstanding diplomat, an experienced leader and a kind colleague.” 

It did not provide further details on the death. 

Considered a specialist in US relations, Darchiev headed the Russian Foreign Ministry’s North America department between 2014 and 2020 before graduating to ambassadorial roles. 

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, he called the move a “necessary measure.” 

Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky is quoted by state media as saying Moscow saw no possibility of exchanging territory with Ukraine as part of any potential agreement. 

State news agency TASS quoted him saying there was “no possibility whatsoever for such exchanges.” 

TASS and Interfax also both cited Medinsky as saying that Russia had decided to establish a “security zone” along its border with Ukraine following the incursion into Kursk. 

“This zone is already quite substantial, it is expanding — and will continue to expand,” he said. 

The reported comments did not make clear where Medinsky considered the border or the so-called buffer zones to be, quite possibly by design. Russia already claims large chunks of what the international community considers to be Ukraine as parts of its territory following its invasion.

Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy advisor to Vladimir Putin and part of the Russian negotiating team, on Wednesday described the talks in Abu Dhabi as substantive and very useful. 

Moscow’s delegation is led by former Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, an another aide to Putin. 

But Ushakov is also involved, along with deputy foreign ministers Sergei Ryabko and Mikhail Galuzin, and General Staff officers Igor Kostyukov and Yuri Shigarlovsky on the military side. 

German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius has said that following the talks in Abu Dhabi, talks between Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Vladimir Putin could become more likely. 

Asked at a Berlin press conference whether Merz would be ready to speak with Putin, Kornelius said that during the talks in Abu Dhabi negotiators from Europe, the US and Ukraine — but not Russia — had reached an “understanding on the broad outlines.” 

“This understanding will now be shared with the Russian president. And on that basis, talks may ensue,” Kornelius said. 

This follows intimations from both sides that the German and Russian leaders might be ready to engage directly. 

Russian state news agency Tass cited the Kremlin as saying that Putin would be open to talks with EU leaders including Merz, echoing comments made earlier this year. 

Merz, meanwhile, had said last Friday that if Putin were to travel to December’s G20 summit in Miami as rumored, he would not rule out a meeting. 

Rustem Umerov, currently the head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service and also its chief negotiator at the talks, also issued a statement following the roughly two hours of trilateral negotiations on Wednesday. 

The former defense minister said negotiators discussed “achieving peace and post-war reconstruction,” adding that “the first steps towards this must be an end to the war and security guarantees for Ukraine.” 

Over these two days, the parties were able to state their positions directly, and significant differences remain between them,” Umerov said on Telegram.

“There is still a lot of difficult work ahead, but there are opportunities to continue the negotiation process.” 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had received a report on the Abu Dhabi talks from his negotiating team in Abu Dhabi. 

He hailed an “important humanitarian arrangement regarding preparations for a new exchange,” seemingly a reference to prisoner exchange plans. Zelenskyy also said negotiators discussed “their views on guaranteeing security” for Ukraine, as well as “broader formats for further work involving the Europeans” going forward. 

Currently in Copenhagen in Denmark, Zelenskyy said his team would meet US negotiators in Dublin on Thursday, after they head to Moscow. But he also called for more European representation going forward. 

“Ukraine’s priority is to end the war as soon as possible with a dignified peace,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

“We believe that Europe must be represented at every stage of real diplomacy. It is essential that the United States have a strong position and exert influence on the source of this war — that is Russia — so that Russia ends the war of its own making.” 

Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia praised “good momentum” after the two-day talks in Abu Dhabi.

“I think that we have a good momentum to bring the solution before the new year comes,” Arakhamia said, adding that he hoped another session could be held “as soon as possible.”

Arakhamia is a close ally of ​President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the ⁠head ​of his ​faction in ​parliament.

He echoed Zelenskyy’s call to bring Europe into the fold in negotioations, saying the talks should be multilateral, not trilateral.

Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said that mutual understanding had been achieved on some ​issues and that more talks ​would be held.

Medinsky told Russian state television that Russia and ‌Ukraine had agreed in Abu Dhabi on conducting ‌a ​large-scale prisoner swap.

“We have agreed on a new, large-scale prisoner exchange,” Medinsky told reporters, adding that “concrete” details would be announced later.

Prisoner exchanges have been one area where the two sides have been able to reach a deal at previous talks.

“Together with the American side, we exchanged our views ​on this; on some points we reached a common ​understanding, whilst on ‌others we did not. And this discussion will, of course, continue. The world needs a new, modern, updated security system – one that ‌is fair and does not disadvantage any particular countries,” Medinsky ‌said of the talks.

The talks have been mediated by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner ‌and envoy ⁠Steve Witkoff. They will travel ​to Moscow on ​Thursday, then ​meet ‌Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ‌in Dublin, according to Kushner.

“One of the positives is we agreed that we’re going to have the biggest humanitarian release of prisoners, which we’re going to finalise the numbers tomorrow,” Kushner ‌ said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the US including Europe in Russia-Ukraine negotiations held in Abu Dhabi.

Ukrainian, US and European representatives held a separate meeting once the formal talks with Russia ended.

The US also met with key European nations, the EU and NATO, to ease European concerns about them being kept out of the process.

“It was not simple to involve Europe. That is point number one,” Zelenskyy told reporters.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had stressed the day before that going forward the format should “include our European partners at the table as well, because they are a part of solving this problem for the long term.”

Russian and Ukrainian sources told AFP that talks in Abu Dhabi had concluded, wrapping up the latest round of negotiations on ending the war. Russian media also reported that talks had finished.

Ukraine said its negotiators would stick around to hold a separate meeting with European and US envoys, once the talks with the Russian team had concluded.

Moscow said ​two people described as agents of the Polish secret ​services were arrested ​in ‌Russia’s western Kaliningrad region, Russia’s Interfax reported.

The two individuals were reportedly arrested for gathering information on military facilities in Kaliningrad.

Kaliningrad is ​a Russian ⁠exclave on the Baltic Sea that borders Poland and Lithuania. 

Russian security services released a statement confirming the arrests without providing the identities of the individuals in custody.

Additionally, seven Polish citizens and three Russian nationals have been put on notice over ‌what ​Russian authorities said were their contacts with the Polish security services.

 “Entry into our country has been barred for the aforementioned citizens of the Republic of Poland for an extended period,” the statement by the FSB read.

Polish authorities, through a spokesman, denounced the statements as “provocation and disinformation.”

Both Russia and Ukraine have continued launching strikes despite the ongoing talks in Abu Dhabi.

Russia’s defense ministry said the army had struck ​a cargo vessel ​in the Black ​Sea ‌southwest of Odesa, which Moscow claimed was carrying ‌weapons ​and military equipment for Ukraine’s armed ​forces.

The ministry also said ⁠Russian ​drones ​hit three ​electricity substations in ‌Ukraine’s Kryvyi ​Rih ⁠and Odesa regions ⁠overnight.

Ukraine reportedly launched a drone attack on Russia’s northwestern Ust-Luga, ⁠a major oil, oil products and ⁠grain export outlet, which caused a fire, regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said.

Drozdenko said that a power ​station was also cut ​off ‌as a result of the attack, adding that 150 drones were ‌shot down over the Leningrad region, home to a major oil refinery and the city of St ​Petersburg.

US, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are meeting at noon today, Russian sources told AFP.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky outlined some of the critical points in the talk in Abu Dhabi, saying they are working on a “large-scale exchange of prisoners,” adding that US officials would travel to Russia to discuss the matter further.

Russia appeared to be looking ahead at the bigger security picture. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov underlined Moscow’s
goal of negotiating a broad European security framework before tackling the specifics of the war.

“The idea of defining clear parameters for a future security architecture, and only then moving on to resolving the actual Russia-Ukraine conflict, is absolutely reasonable,” he said in Moscow.

Representatives for Ukraine and Russia are holding a two day summit with the US in Abu Dhabi that began yesterday. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the trilateral meeting has so far been “constructive and quite substantive.”

Zelenskyy said delegations had time to discuss “the need and possible parameters for humanitarian steps.” 

Meanwhile, top Russian delegate Sergei Ryabkov declined to give an assessment of any progress made so far, Russian news agency Interfax reported, adding that “it’s too early to talk about that.”

For his part, US envoy Jared Kushner told delegates his team had “narrowed the gaps” between the warring sides and hoped to move towards a “solution” to the conflict.