Discussions involving US, Russian and Ukrainian officials are taking place in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, the latest step in the Trump administration’s attempts to push through a peace deal to end the conflict in Ukraine.
The US army secretary, Dan Driscoll, met a Russian delegation on Monday night in the Gulf emirate, and talks continued into Tuesday. “The talks are going well and we remain optimistic. Secretary Driscoll is closely synchronised with the White House ... as these talks progress,” his spokesperson told Reuters.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, was also expected to participate in the talks, the Financial Times reported, though it was not clear whether there would be direct talks with Moscow’s representatives or separate bilateral talks with Driscoll.
Nor was it immediately clear who was in the Russian delegation. “I have nothing to say. We are following the media reports,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told Russian state media.
The meetings come after talks in Switzerland on Sunday when US and Ukrainian officials reworked a draft US plan for ending the war in Ukraine. Moscow has not yet approved the latest version of the plan, and it is unlikely to accept many of the Ukrainian revisions.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Tuesday that any amended peace plan would have to reflect the “spirit and letter” of what Donald Trump and Putin discussed at their summit in Alaska in August.
European leaders are struggling to stay engaged in the process as US officials take the lead. Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, who has emerged as one of Trump’s main interlocutors among European leaders in recent months, said on Tuesday that the coming days would be decisive in attempts to find a peace settlement, after speaking by phone to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte.
“Zelenskyy gave an overview of the latest situation. The future of Ukraine is for Ukraine to decide, and European security is for Europe to decide,” Stubb wrote on X.
Zelenskyy also spoke to the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Tuesday, while the French president, Emmanuel Macron, cautioned against a peace deal that would be a “capitulation” for Ukraine.
“What was put on the table gives us an idea of what would be acceptable for the Russians. Does that mean that it is what must be accepted by the Ukrainians and the Europeans? The answer is no,” Macron said.
The US plan was originally made up of 28 points and was based on discussions between Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Kremlin aide Kirill Dmitriev, reportedly with input from the head of Ukraine’s security council, Rustem Umerov.
The proposal would have involved Ukraine ceding territory occupied by Russia and other areas it would have been expected to surrender voluntarily. It would also have put limits on the size of the Ukrainian army and given all participants in the conflict an amnesty for war crimes.
Driscoll, who is a university friend of the US vice-president, JD Vance, and has recently assumed a leading role in Ukraine negotiations, travelled to Kyiv to brief Zelenskyy on the plan and demand he sign up to it within days. The pressure, combined with the leaking of the plan, took Ukrainian and European officials by surprise. Zelenskyy said on Friday that the country was facing one of the most difficult moments in its history and was being forced to choose between “losing our dignity or losing a key ally”.
Driscoll then briefed Nato ambassadors on the plan in Kyiv. One person present said it had been “a nightmare meeting” and that European ambassadors had been shocked by the content and tone of Driscoll’s delivery.
Washington then rowed back on its ultimatums and said the 28-point plan was an opening point for discussion.
“The sensitive issues, the most delicate points, I will discuss with President Trump,” Zelenskyy said on Monday night, hailing progress in the plan. For all Driscoll’s optimism,however, the Kremlin has shown little interest in compromising on its maximalist goals in the conflict.
As peace talks stumble on, Moscow continues its nightly assaults on Ukrainian cities. Russian forces fired 22 missiles and 464 drones at Ukraine overnight, primarily at targets in and around Kyiv, according to Zelenskyy.
He said the Kremlin must not feel it was able to win the war while talks continued. “What matters most now is that all partners move toward diplomacy together, through joint efforts. Pressure on Russia must deliver results,” he said.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said seven people had been killed in the overnight attack on the city.
