Abu Dhabi Talks Continue for Second Day After Four-Hour Session Zelensky Calls Constructive

Key Facts

Delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the United States held a round of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on November 10, the first meeting of its kind since February, with the session lasting four hours. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it "constructive and largely substantive," and talks were scheduled to resume the following day. Zelensky did not attend the meeting in Abu Dhabi; U.S. President Donald Trump was represented by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, according to the Associated Press. The round put humanitarian issues and security guarantees on the negotiating agenda, after a pause since the February rounds. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the talks were "very productive," but cautioned that a near-term resolution was not imminent.

Zelensky said the discussion covered humanitarian issues, including prisoner exchanges and the return of detained Ukrainian civilians and children transferred out of the country. A senior Ukrainian official said the sides discussed a large-scale prisoner exchange, with details to be discussed in the following days. Prisoners are the most clearly defined track among the issues the sides said were discussed in the round, but statements did not specify how many people would be involved or when an exchange would take place. The most prominent announced outcome of the previous Abu Dhabi round, on February 4 and 5, was the return of 157 Ukrainians, most of whom had been held in captivity since 2022. The current round produced no announcement of an agreement or comparable outcome, while details of the exchange proposal remained under discussion.

Zelensky said security guarantees for Ukraine were also among the topics on the table. Describing the sequencing of steps, he said the priority was "ending the war in Ukraine," followed by security guarantees for his country, after which there could be a dialogue on the security of Europe and the world. This sequence places ending the war and guarantees for Kyiv ahead of any broader discussion of regional security. On November 4, Zelensky said Ukrainian, U.S. and Russian teams were preparing for a trilateral format at the team level, and that security guarantees and air defense were among the topics he discussed in preparatory calls with Trump's envoys. Those remarks show that guarantees were part of the preparations for the round and, according to the Ukrainian president, were then raised in the talks themselves.

The round was preceded by a preparatory meeting in Brussels, which the Ukrainian presidency said brought together teams from Ukraine, the United States, the European Union, France, Britain, Germany, NATO and the World Bank, and focused on postwar recovery. The presidency also said a meeting with European representatives was held as trilateral talks began in Abu Dhabi. Washington had sought to persuade Moscow to accept broader negotiations involving Europeans, according to the Associated Press, while Russia resisted their participation and insisted on the trilateral format. This highlights the difference between the trilateral track held in Abu Dhabi and broader contacts involving European parties and international institutions. The UAE said hosting the round reflected the international community's confidence in its role and expressed hope the talks would lead to practical steps to end the crisis.

The February rounds included two meetings between Ukrainian, U.S. and Russian delegations: the first in Abu Dhabi on February 4 and 5, and the second in Geneva on February 17 and 18, according to the Ukrainian presidency. The Abu Dhabi meeting at the time ended with the return of 157 Ukrainians, while the current round had announced no comparable outcome after its first session. Zelensky said the Ukrainian delegation had received instructions from him for the second day of talks, in addition to discussions with U.S. and European officials in the following days. A U.S. official had said Witkoff and Kushner could travel to Moscow and Kyiv to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky if the Abu Dhabi talks went well. The step scheduled directly after the November 10 session was to resume talks on November 11, with details of any prisoner exchange to be discussed in the following days.