Abu Dhabi skyline. Photo: Madlen Steiner, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine will meet in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November for talks mediated by the United States, in the first three-way round of negotiations since February. The meeting comes after a gap of about nine months, and it will test whether months of diplomacy can move the war towards an end.
What the talks will cover
The American envoy Steve Witkoff announced the talks on 2 November, as Reuters reported, saying the discussions would focus on post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian measures and further steps towards ending the war. Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the lead American negotiators, are expected to represent Washington.
Russia's delegation will be led by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin, while Ukraine's delegation is headed by Rustem Umerov, the head of its Foreign Intelligence Service. The Ukrainian team left for Abu Dhabi on 9 November. Mr Putin agreed to a new round of talks after meeting Mr Witkoff in St Petersburg on 21 October.
Security guarantees at the centre
Security guarantees for Ukraine are expected to dominate the agenda. Kyiv wants guarantees similar to the protection offered by NATO membership, and it has rejected giving up territory. Moscow, meanwhile, has demanded that Ukraine withdraw from four regions Russia claims, accept limits on its armed forces and stay out of NATO permanently.
Those positions remain far apart, and the talks are being held at working level rather than as a meeting of the three countries' leaders. Nobody involved has suggested that a ceasefire or a peace deal is close.
Fighting continues as the talks approach
The diplomacy is taking place against a background of continued attacks. Russian strikes on Ukraine's power grid on Sunday left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity, with officials saying twelve regions came under attack and the capital Kyiv was hit hardest.
Europe's largest nuclear plant, at Zaporizhzhia, also lost its external electricity supply again over the weekend and had to rely on emergency diesel generators to cool its reactors. The International Atomic Energy Agency said radiation levels were normal and fuel was available to run a limited number of generators for about two weeks. Power to the plant was later restored.
What happens next
Ukraine says representatives of Britain, France, Germany and Italy, along with NATO and the European Commission, will also be in Abu Dhabi on the two days of talks. The Kremlin, however, says the talks will take place without European participation — a difference that underlines how much still separates the sides even before they sit down together.
The United States has been active across the region in recent days — it also carried out limited strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island last week.
If the Abu Dhabi meeting produces progress, it could open the way to more detailed negotiations. If it ends without agreement, the war will continue into another winter, and the next chance for talks may be months away.
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