Ukraine and Russia held joint peace talks Friday with the United States, the first trilateral meeting since the Kremlin's full-scale invasion nearly four years ago.
The talks in Abu Dhabi follow marathon overnight discussions at the Kremlin between President Donald Trump’s envoys and Vladimir Putin. Trump met earlier Thursday with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The two-day meeting in the United Arab Emirates signals a renewed effort to strike a deal after months of stop-start diplomacy.
A White House official told NBC News: “Today’s trilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi between the United States, Ukraine, and Russia was productive. Conversations will continue tomorrow.”
Zelenskyy said Friday that the talks were "important, as there have been no such trilateral formats for a long time," but warned, "it is still too early to draw conclusions."
But the key sticking point remains the future of territory in Ukraine's east, with Moscow showing little sign of budging on its hardline demands.
The Kremlin said Friday that Kyiv's military would have to pull out of the area for any deal to end the war.
Zelenskyy announced the trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi after meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Trump said Thursday a deal might be “getting close.”
Hours later, Putin met with Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters the meeting was an “exceptionally substantive, constructive, and, I would say, extremely frank and trusting” conversation, one that was “beneficial in every way for both our and the American sides.”
Witkoff said in Davos on Thursday that the negotiations were “down to one issue.” While he did not elaborate, many took it to mean territorial concessions by Ukraine.
Russia has been clear that it wants the entire eastern Donbas region, which Ukraine still partially controls. Kyiv has refused to cede any territory that it still holds there, leading to an impasse that appears to have stalled negotiations.
Speaking with reporters via WhatsApp on Friday morning, Zelenskyy called the Donbas issue “key,” adding that it will be discussed by the trilateral group in Abu Dhabi in the days to follow.
The trilateral meeting was “a step” toward ending the war, Zelenskyy said, adding: “We are not standing still.”
But Ushakov reiterated after the meeting at the Kremlin that Putin’s territorial demands remain the same, and that without resolving the territorial issue, “there is no hope of achieving a long-term settlement.”
Asked if Russia wants full control over the Donbas, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “Russia’s position is well known — Ukraine and the Ukrainian Armed Forces must leave the territory of Donbas and withdraw from there. This is a very important condition. There are also other nuances that remain on the negotiating agenda.”
Trump has previously pushed of the idea of a free economic zone in the Donbas.
Asked if the trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi could lead to a trilateral meeting between Putin, Zelenskyy and himself, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One late Thursday: "Anytime we meet is good. If you don’t meet, nothing is going to happen."
He said he expects Putin to make concessions, because "everybody’s making concessions to get it done." Both the Russian and Ukrainian leaders want a deal, Trump added.
Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian delegation will feature his top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, and his new Chief of Staff Kyrylo Budanov.
They head into the meeting with many residents of their country's capital still in the grip of power and heat blackouts in freezing temperatures weeks after a massive Russian attack.
While Zelenskyy sent his top officials to Abu Dhabi, Russia's delegation didn't seem to carry quite so much heft.
Ushakov said Friday's three-way talks will focus on “security issues,” and said the Russian delegation there will thus be led by by the chief of military intelligence, Adm. Igor Kostyukov. Putin’s economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev will separately meet with Witkoff, he said.
Peskov told NBC News in his daily news briefing Friday that unnamed “military personnel” will also be part of the Russian delegation.
