The United States will bring Russian and Ukrainian delegations together in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11 for talks on ending the war, de-escalation and postwar security. The meeting revives a trilateral format that has not convened since February and comes before another winter of military and energy pressure.
US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to represent Washington. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to the new round after meeting Witkoff in St Petersburg two weeks earlier. Moscow later designated presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky as its chief negotiator.
The agenda includes humanitarian measures, security arrangements after hostilities and the conditions for ending the conflict. These subjects cannot be separated easily: Ukraine wants enforceable guarantees against renewed invasion, while Russia seeks a wider European security settlement and recognition of battlefield gains.
Before travelling to Abu Dhabi, American officials will meet working-level representatives from France, Germany, Britain, the European Union and NATO in Brussels. They plan to discuss guarantees for Ukraine, Europe's future security architecture and financial support for reconstruction.
Those consultations address a structural problem in the trilateral format. European governments will finance much of Ukraine's recovery and bear the immediate consequences of any settlement, yet they will not sit as equal participants in the principal Abu Dhabi meeting.
The two sides remain far apart on territory, sanctions, force levels and sequencing. President Donald Trump has recently increased pressure on Kyiv to accept an agreement, but a political demand for speed cannot replace mechanisms for ceasefire monitoring, prisoner issues, infrastructure protection and enforcement.
The talks should therefore be judged by whether they produce a structured process rather than a dramatic declaration. Limited agreements on humanitarian measures or energy sites could build evidence of compliance. A durable peace would require decisions by national leaders and a security framework that survives beyond the negotiating room.
