The United States held meetings with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, two U.S. officials told NBC News, as the Trump administration said only “a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details” to secure a deal to end the Kremlin’s war with Ukraine remain.
A U.S. official told NBC News that “the Ukrainians have agreed to the peace deal,” adding that there were “some minor details to be sorted out,” without providing further details. A second U.S. official confirmed Kyiv said it would sign the agreement.
President Donald Trump updated the status of the peace deal Tuesday on Truth Social.
"Over the past week, my team has made tremendous progress with respect to ending the War between Russia and Ukraine (A War that would have NEVER started if I were President!). Last month 25,000 soldiers died," Trump wrote. "The original 28-Point Peace Plan, which was drafted by the United States, has been fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides, and there are only a few remaining points of disagreement."
Trump said he had instructed special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with the Ukrainians "in the hopes of finalizing this Peace Plan."
He added: "I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelenskyy and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages. Thank you for your attention to this very important matter, and let’s all hope that PEACE can be accomplished AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!"
Ukraine has not publicly agreed to any deal, although a top official said the country hopes to finalize an agreement this week in a meeting with Trump after it secures changes to the plan.
The Kremlin said it wanted to see a changed proposal. The second American official said that the Kremlin delegation had not revealed what Russia's position might be but that talks were ongoing and there was optimism for the next step.
Putin has stuck to his hard-line stance throughout months of stop-start diplomacy with Washington, and the plan released last week was initially viewed across Europe as granting the Kremlin its core demands at the expense of Ukraine and its allies.
Any new concessions to Kyiv could be unacceptable to Moscow, but the White House expressed optimism.
“There are a few delicate, but not insurmountable, details that must be sorted out and will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday on X.
Driscoll, the Army secretary, first met with the Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, on Monday evening, and they were meeting again Tuesday, according to the officials.
“The talks are going well and we remain optimistic," Lt. Col. Jeff Tolbert, an Army spokesman, said in a statement. “Secretary Driscoll is closely synchronized with the White House and the U.S. interagency as these talks progress,” he said.
A Ukrainian delegation is also in Abu Dhabi, and Driscoll is in touch with those officials, according to Tolbert.
Even as both warring sides exchanged deadly overnight strikes, a senior Ukrainian official said Zelenskyy could soon fly to the United States and meet with Trump to reach a deal.
The White House had said Monday that no meeting was scheduled.
Ukrainian and U.S. delegations reached "a common understanding on the core terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva," Rustem Umerov, a top official in Zelenskyy’s government, said on X early Tuesday without elaborating on the details.
He added: "We look forward to organizing a visit of Ukraine’s President to the U.S. at the earliest suitable date in November to complete final steps and make a deal with President Trump."
Zelenskyy said Tuesday the Ukrainian team had returned from Geneva with “an updated framework” of the peace plan. He said earlier that there were now fewer points in the plan than the original 28 that circulated last week, adding that he still had to discuss the most “sensitive issues” with Trump.
"The principles in this document can be developed into deeper agreements. It is in our shared interest that security is real," Zelenskyy posted Tuesday on X. "I count on continued active cooperation with the American side and President Trump. Much depends on the United States because it’s America’s strength that Russia takes most seriously."
In a gathering with reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday, Trump said the 28-point plan that was leaked to the media was not meant to be the final plan for a peace deal and he did not set a concrete deadline when a deal may be reached.
“That was just a map. All that was is a map. That was not a plan. It was a concept," he said.
He added, "I don’t have a deadline. I just — you know what the deadline for me is? When it’s over. And I think everybody is tired of fighting at this point.”
In an address Tuesday to the “coalition of the willing” — a group of nations, mostly from Europe, that say they are prepared to underwrite security guarantees for Ukraine — Zelenskyy also highlighted the need to set up the framework for deploying a "reassurance force" for his country.
"We firmly believe security decisions about Ukraine must include Ukraine — that was our position in Geneva and always — security decisions about Europe must include Europe," he said.
He added, "Because when something is decided behind the back of a country or its people, there is always a high risk that it simply will not work."
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in the "coalition of the willing" meeting Tuesday that a “multinational force Ukraine” will play “a vital part” in guaranteeing the country’s security in the future.
“And we must come back to this with a strong political guarantee to show Russia we’re serious about responding to any violation," he said.
He added, “We need to keep the pressure on Russia.”
Just days ago, Zelenskyy warned that his country faced an immensely difficult week, with the pressure to agree to a deal forcing it to choose between its “dignity” and a “key partner.”
But he has since mirrored optimism the United States expressed after high-stakes talks.
Driscoll and top Army leaders first met with Ukrainian leaders in Kyiv late last week.
NBC News has reported that Driscoll attended another meeting with Ukraine over the weekend in Geneva, which included Secretary of State and national security adviser Marco Rubio, special envoy Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Driscoll flew from Geneva to Abu Dhabi on Monday morning and is now the senior official for the U.S. side in the talks with Russia.
Moscow publicly maintained that it had not been handed an official version of the peace plan.
“We still have nothing to say,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday when he was asked about the Abu Dhabi meetings, which were first reported by The Financial Times newspaper.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters Tuesday: "We have channels of communication with our American colleagues, and they are being used. And we expect them to present a version they consider interim in terms of completing the phase of coordinating this text with the Europeans and Ukrainians."
Ukraine and European leaders scrambled to respond to the plan last week, fearing Kyiv could be forced into concessions that would embolden Putin.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that Trump's plan was headed in the right direction but that aspects still needed to be discussed and improved.
"We want peace, but we don’t want a peace that would be a capitulation," he said.
Meanwhile, civilian casualties were reported on each side as Russia pressed ahead with its war.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said at least seven people were killed and 13 more were injured in a Russian attack that left damage and falling debris in 13 different areas of the capital.
Russian officials said three people were killed and 10 more were injured in an overnight aerial attack they blamed on Ukraine in the city of Taganrog, in the border Rostov region.
