ZELENSKYY ANNOUNCES FIRST TRILATERAL TALKS BETWEEN UKRAINE, RUSSIA AND US IN PUSH TO END WAR.
ZELENSKYY ANNOUNCES FIRST TRILATERAL TALKS BETWEEN UKRAINE, RUSSIA AND US IN PUSH TO END WAR.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that officials from Ukraine, Russia and the United States will hold trilateral meetings for the first time on Friday and Saturday, as Washington intensifies diplomatic efforts to bring an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine. The meetings are scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi and mark a significant development in attempts to resolve the nearly three-year conflict.
The announcement follows talks between President Zelenskyy and United States President Donald Trump held on Thursday on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. According to Zelenskyy, discussions with the US have resulted in the finalisation of terms for security guarantees for Ukraine, alongside substantial progress on a post-war economic recovery agreement. The recovery framework is a central component of proposals backed by Kyiv, aimed at countering an earlier US plan that Ukrainian officials viewed as disproportionately favouring Moscow.
Zelenskyy confirmed that the planned Abu Dhabi engagements will bring representatives of the three countries together in a single diplomatic format for the first time since the conflict began. He described the development as a positive step, signalling cautious optimism about the prospects for dialogue. Russian authorities, however, had not issued an immediate response regarding their participation or expectations ahead of the talks.
President Trump, commenting separately on his meeting with Zelenskyy, characterised the engagement as constructive and reiterated that efforts to end the war remain ongoing. The US administration has positioned itself as a central broker in the negotiations, maintaining parallel channels of communication with both Kyiv and Moscow.
Further details on the state of negotiations were provided earlier by US envoy Steve Witkoff, who addressed delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Witkoff indicated that substantial progress has been achieved in the Russia-Ukraine talks, noting that negotiations have narrowed to a single outstanding issue. He expressed confidence that the remaining matter is resolvable, provided there is sufficient political will from both sides.
In a related diplomatic move, Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, later travelled to Moscow for discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The visit underscored Washington’s continued engagement with the Kremlin as part of its broader strategy to advance a negotiated settlement.
The upcoming trilateral talks are expected to focus on security arrangements, pathways toward a ceasefire, and frameworks for Ukraine’s economic reconstruction following the war. While significant obstacles remain, the Abu Dhabi meetings are being viewed as a critical test of whether sustained diplomacy can translate into tangible progress toward ending one of Europe’s most devastating conflicts in decades.