Russia says trilateral talks with Ukraine and the US are planned for November in Abu Dhabi
Russia has said direct talks with Ukraine and the United States are planned for November in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. The announcement was made by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday, following a meeting on Wednesday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff. Moscow said it was prepared to resume peace discussions that have been stalled since the start of the year.
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The Kremlin did not provide a detailed agenda for the proposed meeting, but senior Russian official Yuri Ushakov said the conflict in Ukraine was approaching its end. That comment was not accompanied by further explanation. The reported talks would bring together the three sides after months in which direct negotiations had not advanced, despite continued diplomatic contacts involving Washington.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also voiced support for the initiative, while stressing that Ukraine must be part of any negotiations to end the war. In a television interview on Wednesday, he proposed freezing the front line as a first step toward ceasefire talks. He also said any peace deal would need security guarantees from international partners, including the United States and European countries, to prevent renewed occupation and violence.
The announcement comes at a sensitive point in the wider diplomacy around the war. Any trilateral format would be significant because it would place Ukraine, Russia and the United States in the same process after a period of deadlock. It would also underline the continuing role of Washington in efforts to shape a possible settlement, even as the fighting has continued and the terms of any agreement remain unresolved.
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The meeting between Putin and Witkoff also produced two other disclosures from Moscow. Russia said it would soon begin sending diesel shipments to the United States in an arrangement linked to President Donald Trump, and it said it had freed a US citizen who had been detained in the country since the start of the war. Those developments were presented alongside the peace talks announcement, adding to the diplomatic significance of the encounter.
What remains unclear is whether the Abu Dhabi talks will take place as planned, who will attend, and whether they will lead to any concrete ceasefire framework. It is also not clear how far apart the sides remain on territorial issues, security guarantees and the sequence of any future negotiations. For now, the announcement marks a new diplomatic opening, but one that still depends on confirmation and further detail.
