Ukraine peace talks opened in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday with an initial coordination meeting bringing together delegations from Kyiv, the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission ahead of two days of trilateral sessions with Russia. Ukrainian chief negotiator Rustem Umerov, who leads Kyiv’s team alongside Presidential Office head Kyrylo Budanov, said the allies met first to “align our positions and coordinate our next steps” as Russia’s delegation, headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, departed for the Qasr Al Watan presidential palace venue. The subsequent US, Ukrainian and Russian sessions mark the first direct three-way negotiations since February.
The agenda for the two-day meeting includes ceasefire monitoring, prisoner exchanges, postwar security guarantees and the contested Donbas region, where Moscow continues to demand the entire Donetsk region while Kyiv proposes freezing the conflict along the current front line. While a US official said Monday that Washington has asked Russia to accept NATO Article 4 and Article 5 style protections for Ukraine and noted that both sides have shown some private flexibility on territory, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that no final plan for security guarantees exists yet and said Russia would have to agree to the arrangements for them to work.