Photo copyright: Reuters
Trilateral negotiations with the participation of Russia, Ukraine and the United States ended in Abu Dhabi - the first in the last nine months. So far, only one agreement is known - another exchange of prisoners of war, the parameters of which have not yet been announced. The US delegation plans to discuss the exchange with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine in person. The territorial issue was also raised, but there was no progress, as follows from the statements of all participants in the negotiations.
If on the first day the delegations communicated for more than four hours, the second day of negotiations turned out to be much shorter: the meeting with the participation of the delegations of Russia, Ukraine and the United States lasted about two hours. After this, the Ukrainian and American negotiators went to a meeting with representatives of European countries and the European Union, which is why Moscow representatives were the first to have the opportunity to comment on the results of the trilateral negotiations.
The head of the Russian delegation, assistant to the President of Russia Vladimir Medinsky, commenting on the results of the meeting, confirmed that the topic of a “comprehensive security system in Europe” was the central topic of the negotiations. Now it works poorly, Medinsky said, and in Ukraine “its abscess has opened.” He did not make public the details of the discussion, explaining that until specific agreements are reached, the details of the negotiation process will not be publicly discussed.
This topic was proposed to be discussed in Abu Dhabi by the United States, which meets the demands of Moscow, which excludes a cessation of hostilities before a deal is concluded, while Kyiv insists that the order should be reversed. First, it is necessary to “stop the war”, at the second stage - to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, at the third - a dialogue “on security in Europe and the world,” Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky recalled the day before the position of Kyiv.
“With the participation of the American side, we exchanged views. Sometimes there was understanding, sometimes not. The dialogue will continue,” Medinsky said.
At the same time, he thanked the American delegation, saying that it was aimed “not at talk, but at results.”
Photo copyright: Alexander Ryumin/TASS
The head of the Russian delegation confirmed earlier reports that during the negotiations an agreement was reached on the exchange of prisoners of war. The exchange parameters will be announced later, he said.
Medinsky confirmed that Moscow does not want representatives of European countries to participate in future negotiations, which the United States insists on. “We don’t really understand what their status is here,” he said about the representatives of European countries and the European Union who came to Abu Dhabi, calling them “tourists.”
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Earlier, the Kremlin said that it did not plan to meet with representatives of European countries and the European Union, as well as NATO and the European Commission, who arrived in Abu Dhabi.
“Such contacts were not planned, were not intended, and there were no such contacts,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on the eve of the talks in Abu Dhabi.
What the representatives of Ukraine said
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The Ukrainian delegation did not limit itself to the comments of Rustem Umerov, the head of the negotiating team alone, who said that “huge progress” had been made in security issues in Abu Dhabi.
Another member of the delegation, head of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada, David Arakhamia, emphasized the importance of the agreement on the exchange of prisoners and expressed hope that trilateral negotiations will become multilateral in the future, with the participation of European representatives.
He also suggested that significant progress in resolving the conflict could be achieved before the end of the year. Earlier, US President Donald Trump made a statement about a possible imminent settlement.
When asked by journalists about the territorial issue, the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov, did not answer. We must not harm the negotiations while they are still ongoing, the results will be made public when they are, he said.
Another member of the Ukrainian delegation, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Sergei Kislitsa, noted that neither side presented ultimatums. “This is very important,” he added.
What US representatives said
Jared Kushner, one of two US representatives at the Abu Dhabi talks, said after the second day that the meetings were very productive. They discussed, among other things, “difficult issues,” and the most difficult, he said, was the issue of territories. He did not provide details.
He also announced that on Thursday, November 12, he would go to Moscow along with the special envoy of the American President, Steve Witkoff, to discuss the issue of prisoner exchange. After that, they will travel to Dublin, where they will meet with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
Kushner added that talks with the Europeans had also been productive and reiterated that Europe should be at the table.
photo copyrightREUTERS/Rula Rouhana
Prisoner exchange
Following the results of the first day, no official statements were made by the parties, but Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday evening that the first round was “constructive and quite meaningful.”
In particular, the parties discussed a new large-scale exchange of prisoners of war - according to the formula “1000 to 1000” or “1500 to 1500.” It was exchanges like these that were the main results of previous trilateral negotiations in the UAE and Geneva.
The last exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine took place on October 23: then 270 military personnel each returned to Ukraine from Russian captivity and to Russia from Ukrainian captivity. In total, since the beginning of 2026, Kyiv and Moscow have carried out almost two dozen exchanges of prisoners of war.
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Question of territories
The territorial issue, fundamental for both Kyiv and Moscow, was to become one of the main topics of negotiations, along with the security architecture in Europe.
According to the Telegraph and Economist, the American delegation led by Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner proposed changing the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine along the current front line. In this case, Russia could consider that it has gained control over the Donbass, and Kyiv would retain the cities in this region that remain under its control, the sources explained the logic of the proposal.
According to the Telegraph, Ukraine rejected this proposal. A Ukrainian newspaper source familiar with the negotiations said that the Ukrainian delegation “never discussed any concessions relating to territories occupied by Russia.”
“Every inch of our land will be returned to Russia. One way or another. And let European newspapers continue to live in the world of their illusions,” Medinsky commented on the Telegraph publication after the press approach.
According to Zelensky, the Russian delegation raised the issue of territories on the first day of negotiations. However, this topic is for discussion at the level of state leaders, about which Ukrainian negotiators have been notified, he noted.
The Kremlin considers a personal meeting between Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky possible only if the Ukrainian president comes to Moscow, which is unacceptable for Kyiv.
Should the negotiations in Abu Dhabi be considered successful? Commentary by BBC correspondent Elizaveta Focht*
The Abu Dhabi talks were different from other trilateral contacts we have seen before. Primarily because of their focus: the emphasis was on the discussion about a new security architecture throughout Europe, and not just in Ukraine.
The choice of this topic is partly understandable. There has been no progress on issues that directly relate to what is happening on the battlefield for a long time. At the same time, over almost five years of war, Russia has not ceased to recall the so-called “root causes of the conflict,” which, according to the Kremlin, includes the expansion of NATO. Moscow tried to conduct such negotiations in the form of an ultimatum back in 2021, shortly before the start of the war.
Ukraine’s priorities relate to what is happening on its own territory: Kyiv, on the eve of a difficult winter, would like to talk about an energy truce, a freeze in fighting, shipping in the Black Sea and humanitarian initiatives.
Despite this, the organizers of the negotiations clearly believed that talking about global issues would motivate Moscow to return to the negotiating table.
It partly worked: the meeting took place in Abu Dhabi, and the dialogue between the parties resumed. The countries agreed on a new exchange of prisoners of war. Representatives of the Ukrainian delegation hope that some solutions that will bring the parties closer to peace will be found before the New Year.
But according to the statements of the Russian negotiators, it is clear that this meeting did not truly bring us closer to the end of the war.
The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, promises that Russia “one way or another” will achieve the return (that is, the seizure) of all its lands (that is, the sovereign territories of Ukraine). This means that territorial claims are no less important for the Kremlin than dialogue about the future of Europe. Without resolving this issue, the war cannot be ended.
Vladimir Zelensky made it clear the day before that Ukraine intends to continue to defend its own lands. Judging by his statements, Kyiv will not even consider transactions with territories without reinforced concrete security guarantees. And it seems that at the moment the only form of such guarantees acceptable to Ukraine is NATO membership. Russia has repeatedly made it clear that it will not agree to this.
Talk about strategic stability cannot mask disagreements on the most painful issue: who in the future will control the territories where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens live. There are no signs yet that Russia and Ukraine are closer to a compromise on this topic.
*Russian authorities included Elizaveta Focht in the register of “foreign agents.” The BBC strongly objects to this decision and is challenging it in court.
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