By Anietie Anii-Bassey
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the future of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region will dominate discussions as delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the United States convened in Abu Dhabi on Friday for rare three-way talks aimed at ending Russia’s nearly four-year full-scale invasion.
The United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry confirmed that the negotiations began Friday and are scheduled to run for two days, describing them as part of continuing diplomatic efforts to foster dialogue and explore political solutions to the war.
The UAE has increasingly positioned itself as a neutral venue for sensitive international diplomacy, and officials framed the gathering as an attempt to narrow long-standing gaps between the warring sides.
The talks come only hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin held overnight discussions with envoys sent by U.S. President Donald Trump. Those sessions stretched for nearly four hours into early Friday morning in Moscow, underscoring the intensity of behind-the-scenes maneuvering surrounding the latest peace push.
Russian officials afterward reiterated that any settlement would require Ukraine to withdraw its forces from territories in the east that Moscow claims to have annexed but has never fully controlled.
Zelenskyy has rejected that demand and instead has floated an alternative vision for the contested region. Speaking to reporters, he said he remains open to creating a free-trade zone in eastern Ukraine under Kyiv’s authority, an idea he discussed directly with Trump during a meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“I think it will be positive for our business,” Zelenskyy said, suggesting the proposal could help stabilize the region economically while remaining within Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Friday’s meeting marked the first publicly known occasion in which officials from the Trump administration sat down simultaneously with negotiators from both Kyiv and Moscow.
Although diplomats cautioned that the talks face formidable hurdles and could falter, their very occurrence was viewed by some analysts as a sign that the sides may be edging closer to a framework for compromise.
Zelenskyy said that while the status of territory currently occupied by Russian forces remains unresolved, the outlines of potential agreements are “nearly ready.” The Kremlin, by contrast, offered little detail about the Abu Dhabi sessions, referring only to a “working group on security issues.”
In a recorded message shared with journalists, Zelenskyy said Ukraine, Russia and the United States would first confer before briefing European partners. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Russia’s delegation is led by Adm.
Igor Kostyukov and includes senior military officials. Separately, Putin’s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev is expected to meet with Trump’s representative Steve Witkoff to discuss economic matters.
Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov, who participated in the overnight talks with Witkoff and Jared Kushner, said it was emphasized that a durable peace would be impossible without addressing what Moscow calls the “territorial issue.”
Ushakov described the exchanges with the U.S. team as candid and constructive, adding that Trump’s envoys briefed Putin on Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy as well as earlier consultations with Ukrainian and European officials.
Witkoff and Kushner were joined by Josh Gruenbaum, head of the Federal Acquisition Service and a senior adviser on Trump’s Board of Peace, which Russia has been invited to join.
Putin reiterated an earlier offer to contribute $1 billion from Russian assets frozen in the United States to the board to support reconstruction efforts in Gaza. Asked about that proposal, Trump said he saw no problem with it, remarking, “If he’s using his money, that’s great.”
Zelenskyy and Trump met privately for about an hour in Davos, with the Ukrainian leader later calling the discussion “productive and meaningful.” Trump, speaking aboard Air Force One on his return flight to Washington, said both Putin and Zelenskyy appeared eager to reach an agreement and that “everyone’s making concessions” in pursuit of an end to the war.
Still, he acknowledged that the core obstacles have remained largely unchanged for months, singling out borders as a central sticking point. “The main hold-up is the same things that’s been holding it up for the last year,” he said.
Russia’s larger military has seized roughly one-fifth of Ukrainian territory since hostilities first erupted in 2014 and escalated dramatically with the 2022 invasion.
Those gains, however, have come at a steep cost in personnel and equipment, while the Russian economy continues to strain under the weight of wartime spending and international sanctions.
Ukraine faces its own mounting pressures. Kyiv remains dependent on Western military assistance despite expanding domestic weapons production, and officials have warned of shortages of both funds and manpower.
The country’s defense minister recently disclosed about 200,000 cases of desertion, along with widespread draft evasion involving an estimated two million people, underscoring the toll the prolonged conflict has taken on Ukrainian society.
Against that backdrop, Zelenskyy used his Davos appearance to deliver a sharp critique of Europe’s response to the war. While European nations have provided extensive financial, humanitarian and military aid, Kyiv has grown frustrated with internal divisions within the European Union and what it views as slow and cautious decision-making.
“Europe looks lost,” Zelenskyy said in his speech, urging the continent to assert itself as a major global power. He contrasted Europe’s approach with what he described as Washington’s more decisive actions elsewhere, including in Venezuela and Iran.
Drawing on the film “Groundhog Day,” in which the protagonist relives the same events repeatedly, Zelenskyy lamented that he was repeating the same warnings he issued a year earlier at the forum.
“Just last year, here in Davos, I ended my speech with the words: Europe needs to know how to defend itself. A year has passed. And nothing has changed,” he said.
He accused European governments of moving too slowly on critical defense decisions, spending too little on their own militaries, failing to curb Russia’s network of oil tankers operating in defiance of sanctions, and hesitating to use frozen Russian assets held in Europe to support Ukraine’s war effort.
As negotiators in Abu Dhabi work through competing demands and political realities, the fate of eastern Ukraine — and the broader prospects for ending the grinding conflict — remain uncertain.
But the flurry of high-level meetings across three continents this week has underscored the renewed urgency on all sides to test whether a diplomatic path out of the war is finally within reach.