(AFP) – Three-way talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the US opened in Abu Dhabi, the UAE said Friday, as Moscow indicated it was not dropping its demand that Kyiv pull out of its eastern Donbas region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that territory remained the key issue and would be on the agenda for the talks. These are the first direct public negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv on a plan being pushed by US President Donald Trump to end the almost four-year-long war.
“The talks commenced today in Abu Dhabi and are scheduled to continue over two days, as part of ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis,” the UAE foreign ministry said in a statement. High-level teams from the three countries gathered for the negotiations a day after Trump met with Zelensky in Davos, and hours after US envoy Steve Witkoff held late-night talks with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
The Emirates meeting will take place as thousands of people in Kyiv were without heating in sub-zero temperatures due to Russian strikes. The EU, which has sent hundreds of generators to the war-torn country, has accused Moscow of “deliberately depriving civilians of heat”.
Before the talks began, Kyiv reported that Russian strikes had killed three people Friday in the Kharkiv region and four others overnight in the east, including a father and his five-year-old son. While diplomacy to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II has gained pace, Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds, in what appears to be a deadlock over the issue of territory.
Hours after Putin met with Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Moscow, the Kremlin reiterated its maximalist demand that Kyiv withdraw from the eastern Donbas region. “Russia’s position is well known on the fact that Ukraine, Ukrainian armed forces, have to leave the territory of the Donbas,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated. “This is a very important condition,” he added.
Kyiv, which still controls around 20 percent of the eastern region, has deemed such terms unacceptable. Germany, a Ukraine ally, expressed that it still had “major questions” regarding Moscow’s willingness to compromise.
Both sides agree that the fate of territory in Ukraine’s east is one of the main outstanding issues in the search for a settlement to a war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and decimated eastern Ukraine. “The Donbas is a key issue,” Zelensky – who stated he and Trump had agreed on post-war security guarantees in Davos – told reporters on Friday, ahead of the talks. “God willing (the talks will lead) to ending the war,” he added, before cautioning: “It could go differently, but it’s a step.”
After speaking to the head of his delegation, Rustem Umerov, Zelensky noted that the exact formats of the meetings were yet to be set. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are last known to have met face-to-face in Istanbul last summer, in talks that ended only in agreements to exchange captured soldiers. The Abu Dhabi meeting marks the first time they will face each other to discuss the Trump administration’s plan.
Kyiv’s team includes security chief Umerov, Zelensky’s new chief-of-staff Kyrylo Budanov, negotiator David Arakhamia, and ground army chief Andriy Gnatov. Moscow is sending General Igor Kostyukov, the director of its GRU military intelligence agency, as part of an all-military delegation. The Kremlin also stated that its economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev would attend to hold separate Russia-US talks with Witkoff, who is leading the American side, along with Kushner.
Putin has repeatedly stated Moscow intends to gain full control of eastern Ukraine by force if negotiations fail. Following the Russia-US talks in the Kremlin, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov insisted that Moscow was “genuinely interested in resolving” the war diplomatically. However, he added: “Until that happens, Russia will continue to achieve its objectives… on the battlefield.”
A source familiar with the planned talks informed AFP that the role of the United States would be crucial to how the discussions unfold. “A lot will depend on the position of the Americans,” they noted. Trump has previously pressured Ukraine to agree to terms that Kyiv perceives as capitulation. On Wednesday, Trump repeated his belief that Putin and Zelensky were close to a deal. “I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done. And if they don’t, they’re stupid – that goes for both of them,” he stated.
© 2024 AFP
