UAE Hosts First Public U.S.-Russia-Ukraine Trilateral Talks as War Grinds On

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — As temperatures in parts of Ukraine plunged well below freezing and cities braced for more blackouts, officials from Russia, Ukraine and the United States slipped into a chandeliered conference hall on the Abu Dhabi waterfront on Jan. 23 to test whether nearly four years of war could be nudged toward some form of peace.

First publicly acknowledged trilateral format

Behind closed doors at Emirates Palace and later at Al Shati Palace, delegations from the three countries began what the United Arab Emirates called “trilateral talks” on ending the conflict. It was the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that Moscow, Kyiv and Washington had publicly acknowledged sitting together in a three-way negotiating format.

The two-day discussions, which concluded Jan. 24, did not produce a cease-fire or a breakthrough agreement. But they marked a notable shift in the diplomacy of the war: a U.S.-driven effort, hosted by a Gulf state, in which military and intelligence officials took center stage and thorny questions about territory, security guarantees and attacks on energy infrastructure were put directly on the table.

In a statement announcing the meeting, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the talks were intended to “contribute to tangible steps toward ending a crisis that has persisted for nearly four years and resulted in immense humanitarian suffering.” The ministry said the UAE served as host and facilitator, while “delegations of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and the United States” conducted the discussions.

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said the country’s role reflected “the international community’s confidence in the UAE’s leading role and its steadfast approach to supporting peace and de-escalation.” President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met the heads of delegation at Al Shati Palace and expressed hope the meetings would “yield progress toward ending the conflict,” according to Emirati officials.

Donbas at the center

For Ukraine, the focus was clear before the envoys arrived in Abu Dhabi. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos a day earlier, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “The question of Donbas is key. It will be discussed how the three sides see this in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow.”

Donbas — the eastern Ukrainian region encompassing Donetsk and Luhansk — has been at the heart of Russia’s justification for its “special military operation” and is now central to the opening of talks. Russian officials have repeatedly said any settlement must include Ukraine’s withdrawal from the region, including areas still under Kyiv’s control.

Ukraine, for its part, has consistently rejected recognizing Russian sovereignty over any occupied territory, including Donbas and Crimea. Officials in Kyiv have signaled they are prepared to discuss security arrangements and demilitarized zones but not formal changes to Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.

After receiving a debrief from his team, Zelenskyy described the Abu Dhabi talks as “constructive” and focused on “parameters for ending the war,” but cautioned that “it is too early to draw conclusions.”

Moscow struck a similar tone. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the meetings “constructive” and said the Kremlin viewed the start of such contacts “positively.” But, he added, “there is significant work ahead” and it would be a mistake to expect “significant results” from a first round.

A fast-moving diplomatic push

The talks came together quickly. On Jan. 22 in Davos, Zelenskyy met with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration has been pressing a 20-point plan that U.S. officials say is designed to end the war or at least freeze large-scale fighting. Trump’s special envoy, real-estate developer Steve Witkoff, said in public comments that the plan had effectively been reduced to “one question,” widely understood to be territory in the east.

That same night, Witkoff and senior Trump adviser Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow for several hours of discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin and senior aides. Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Putin, later described those talks as “substantive, constructive and very frank,” while reiterating that territorial issues had to be resolved before any “durable peace” could be possible.

When the delegations convened in Abu Dhabi the next morning, the composition of the teams underscored the nature of the agenda. On all sides, military and intelligence officials were prominent.

The Ukrainian delegation was led by Rustem Umerov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and included top military and intelligence figures such as Gen. Andrii Hnatov, the chief of the General Staff, and Lt. Gen. Vadym Skibitskyi, a senior official in military intelligence. Parliamentary leader Davyd Arakhamia also took part.

Russia’s delegation was headed by Igor Kostyukov, the chief of the GRU military intelligence service, according to regional and Emirati reports. The team was described as largely made up of defense and security officials.

The U.S. side was led by Witkoff and included Kushner and senior defense officials, among them Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, according to Ukrainian accounts of the talks. The White House has not published a full list of American participants.

What was on the table

The agenda, as described by officials and regional media, covered four main areas:

• Occupied territories, particularly Donbas
• Security guarantees and Ukraine’s longer-term defense posture
• A possible cease-fire or more limited halt in certain categories of strikes
• Humanitarian issues such as prisoner exchanges and nuclear safety

The timing of the talks was driven in part by conditions on the ground. In the weeks before Abu Dhabi, Russia had stepped up missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian power stations, heating plants and transmission lines. The strikes left cities including Kyiv facing scheduled and unscheduled blackouts as temperatures dropped well below zero. Ukrainian officials warned of a looming humanitarian crisis and appealed for additional air defenses.

Against that backdrop, negotiators discussed what some participants called an “energy cease-fire” — a commitment by Russia to halt or sharply reduce strikes on energy infrastructure and major population centers, at least temporarily, in exchange for progress in talks or other concessions. While no formal written agreement was announced, Trump later claimed publicly that Putin had agreed, at his request, to a one-week halt of strikes on Kyiv and energy facilities during an extreme cold snap.

Ukrainian officials responded cautiously. Zelenskyy said any let-up in missile and drone attacks on the capital would be treated as an “opportunity” to repair infrastructure, but stressed there was “no formal agreement” and pointed to continuing Russian strikes in other regions and near front lines.

Security guarantees, humanitarian steps, and nuclear safety

Beyond energy, negotiators also touched on Ukraine’s demand for robust, enforceable security guarantees in any eventual settlement. People briefed on the U.S. thinking say the administration is exploring a framework that would lock in long-term American support for Ukraine’s armed forces — through arms supplies, training and intelligence — while stopping short of full North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership. Any such arrangement could require approval from both the U.S. Congress and the Ukrainian parliament.

Another strand of discussion involved humanitarian steps that could be delivered even without a comprehensive deal. The UAE, which has served as an intermediary in multiple rounds of Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchanges, highlighted that it has helped mediate 17 such efforts leading to the release of 4,641 detainees. Officials familiar with the Abu Dhabi talks said further swaps and humanitarian corridors for civilians were viewed as realistic near-term goals.

Nuclear safety was also on the agenda, including the situation at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine. Diplomats said options discussed included international monitoring and arrangements for sharing electricity output, though there was no indication of agreement on control of the facility.

Legal constraints—and Europe’s concerns

Legal and political constraints shadowed every discussion. Under the United Nations Charter and customary international law, the acquisition of territory by force is prohibited. Western governments, including the United States, have repeatedly stated they will not recognize Russia’s annexation claims over Donetsk, Luhansk, Crimea and two other Ukrainian regions.

That stance narrows the range of possible outcomes. Ukrainian officials have floated the idea of demilitarized or “free economic” zones in contested areas such as Donbas, with both sides’ forces pulling back a set distance under international monitoring, but without formal border changes. Russian officials, by contrast, have insisted their annexation decrees are irreversible.

While European Union and NATO states are not directly represented at the talks, they are watching closely. Many European governments have supported Ukraine with military and financial aid and worry that a settlement negotiated primarily among Washington, Moscow and Kyiv could sideline European security concerns or set precedents that encourage other territorial revisionism.

The UAE’s growing mediator role

From the Gulf’s perspective, the Abu Dhabi meetings reinforced a strategic message. Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi said the talks demonstrated the UAE’s “pivotal role in facilitating a peaceful resolution” and reiterated GCC support for “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity” within internationally recognized borders.

The UAE, which maintains working relations with both Russia and Ukraine as well as deep security ties with the United States, has spent the past two years positioning itself as a venue for high-stakes diplomacy. Hosting the first public three-way talks on the Ukraine war fits that pattern and signals a continuing shift of some crisis diplomacy away from traditional European capitals.

What comes next

For now, diplomats describe the Abu Dhabi round as the beginning of a process rather than a turning point. Preparations are underway for a follow-up meeting, tentatively in early February, again in the UAE capital. Officials on all sides say technical teams will work between sessions on clarifying positions on territory, security guarantees and restrictions on certain types of strikes.

Whether those efforts lead to a broader cease-fire, a formal freeze of the front lines, incremental humanitarian arrangements or a return to intensified fighting remains uncertain. The talks in Abu Dhabi brought three key actors into the same room, under the gaze of a rising Gulf mediator, but the hardest questions of the war — who controls which land, under what guarantees, and with what consequences for international law — still await answers, far from the luxury hotels where the first words toward peace were cautiously exchanged.