Russia, Ukraine and US set to hold security talks in Abu Dhabi
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talks to the media at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. Picture: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Ukraine, Russia and the US are set to hold three-way talks in Abu Dhabi on Friday, marking the first time that the three countries have sat down together since Russia invaded in 2022.
The meeting was confirmed in the early hours of Friday morning after talks at the Kremlin between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the US envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Kremlin diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters those talks were “useful in every respect”, adding that it was “agreed that the first meeting of a trilateral working group on security issues will take place today in Abu Dhabi”.
The full details of the talks in the United Arab Emirates were not released at the time of writing, and it was not clear whether Russian and Ukrainian officials would meet face to face. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the talks would last two days.
Mr Witkoff, Mr Kushner and the US team are scheduled to meet a Russian delegation, headed by Gen Igor Kostyukov, director of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
The Trump administration has been pushing for a peace settlement, with its envoys shuttling between Kyiv and Moscow in a flurry of negotiations that some worry could force Ukraine into an unfavourable deal. The US president said on Wednesday that Mr Putin and Mr Zelenskyy would be “stupid” if they failed to come together and get a deal done.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Witkoff said one major issue remained to be resolved in the negotiations, without saying what it was.
Mr Zelenskyy said the future status of land currently occupied by Russia in the east of the country was unresolved, but peace proposals were “nearly ready”. Both sides have previously highlighted the issue of territory as crucial. In particular, Mr Putin has demanded that Ukraine surrender the 20% it still holds of the eastern region of Donetsk. Mr Zelenskyy has refused to give up land that Ukraine has successfully defended since 2022 through grinding, costly attritional warfare.
Russia also demands that Ukraine renounce its ambition to join Nato, and rejects any presence of Nato troops on Ukrainian soil after a peace deal.
“Russians have to be ready for compromises because, you know, everybody has to be ready, not only Ukraine, and this is important for us,” Mr Zelenskyy said from Davos, adding that postwar security guarantees between Washington and Kyiv were ready, should a deal be reached, although they would require each country’s ratification.
Mr Zelenskyy was speaking after a closed-door meeting with the US president at Davos. Ukraine’s president made a blistering Davos speech, accusing European leaders of being in “Greenland mode” as they waited for leadership from Trump on Ukraine and other geopolitical crises rather than taking action themselves.
Despite Mr Trump’s limited and scattershot support for Ukraine since taking office one year ago, Mr Zelenskyy focused instead on Europe’s role in the conflict, accusing the continent’s leaders of complacency and inaction.
“Just last year, here in Davos, I ended my speech with the words ‘Europe needs to know how to defend itself’,” Mr Zelenskyy said. “A year has passed, and nothing has changed.”
Speaking to reporters as he flew back to Washington, Mr Trump said his meeting with Mr Zelenskyy went well, adding that the Ukrainian president told him he wanted to make a deal to end the war.
“I had a good meeting, but I’ve had numerous good meetings with President Zelenskyy, and it doesn’t seem to happen,” he said.
Mr Trump noted that both Mr Putin and Mr Zelenskyy wanted to reach a deal and that “everyone’s making concessions” to try to end the war.
He said the sticking points in talks had remained the same over the past six or seven months, noting “boundaries” was a key issue. “The main hold-up is the same things that’s been holding it up for the last year,” he said.
Mr Trump also said he and Mr Zelenskyy discussed how Ukrainians were surviving the cold winter without heat. “It’s really tough for the people of Ukraine,” Trump said, noting that it was “amazing” how residents were able to persevere through the winter facing relentless Russian strikes.
Ukraine is enduring a bitter winter, with Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure cutting power and heating to much of the capital, Kyiv, as well as other major cities.
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