Russia and Ukraine return to the table in Abu Dhabi after nine months, and Europe is told it does not have a seat

The war in Ukraine returned to the negotiating table on Tuesday, when delegations from Moscow, Kyiv and Washington met in the United Arab Emirates capital for the first of two days of talks. The first day ended after about four and a half hours, including a break of roughly 40 minutes, and the delegations are due to meet again on Wednesday.

Speaking at the University of Copenhagen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the session “constructive and quite substantive”. He said it dealt largely with humanitarian questions: prisoner exchanges, the return of Ukrainian civilians held in captivity and children taken from Ukraine, along with security guarantees. A senior Ukrainian official said the two sides discussed a large-scale prisoner swap, with details to be worked out in the coming days. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, called the talks “very productive”. Russia has not described the substance.

Before the three-way session, Ukraine’s delegation met European, NATO and US officials in the city. US special envoy Steve Witkoff said afterwards that the group was coordinating closely to end the war, and that any future agreement must respect Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independent decision-making, and provide robust security guarantees. European and American delegations also issued a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to European security.

It is the first three-way meeting since February, when earlier rounds in Abu Dhabi and Geneva ended without a breakthrough.

Who is at the table?

The United States is represented by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-in-law, who have led the mediation. Ukraine’s team is headed by Rustem Umerov. Russia’s is reported to include Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky and deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the meeting as negotiations between Russia and Ukraine “with US mediation” and said Europeans would not take part.

What will they talk about?

Security guarantees come first. A US official said those could include a defence commitment modelled on Article 5 of the NATO treaty, the clause that treats an attack on one member as an attack on all. Territory would most likely come last.

That order matters. For Kyiv, the question has never been only where the line is drawn but what stops Russia crossing it again. A guarantee with American weight behind it is the thing Ukraine has sought since the 1994 Budapest assurances failed to protect it.

On land, the public positions have not moved. Russia demands that Ukraine hand over all of Donbas, including areas Moscow does not hold. Russia occupies roughly a fifth of Ukraine. The US official said both sides had privately shown some flexibility on an exchange of territory, but a senior Ukrainian official said any such discussion belonged to the national leaders and had to come with guarantees.

What are the leaders saying?

Mr Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he saw “a very strong inclination to end Russia and Ukraine”, and said both armies were tired of fighting.

His secretary of state was more guarded. “Nothing’s been finalised yet,” Marco Rubio said on Sunday, adding that some progress might be made in Abu Dhabi.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used his Monday night address to argue that his army was improving Kyiv’s hand, saying Ukrainian forces were strengthening the country’s negotiating position and that Russia was suffering record losses. Moscow disputes that, and he gave no figures.

Why is Europe unhappy?

Because the continent that would live beside any settlement is in the building but not at the main table. European officials met the Ukrainian team in Abu Dhabi before the three-way session, and that is as close as Moscow will allow. At a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Paris on Monday, Germany’s Johann Wadephul put it bluntly: “Europe belongs at this table.”

He said Abu Dhabi would show whether Russia was genuinely ready to negotiate, urged Moscow to drop its maximalist demands and warned against a “negotiation show”. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said no one had the right to decide his country’s fate behind its back.

The stakes for Europe are practical. European governments are now Ukraine’s main source of money and arms, and any deal that redraws the continent’s security arrangements would bind them whether or not they helped write it.

Is there any reason for optimism?

Some, with caution. The talks are happening at all, after nine months without a three-way meeting, and Washington is describing private movement on the hardest question. But the rounds in January and February began with similar language. Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities and power networks have continued in recent days, including attacks that cut electricity to hundreds of thousands of people in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

VNN will update this story as more is confirmed.