Key events
Zelenskyy says Kyiv in strengthened position for talks as officials seek end to Russia-Ukraine war
We are restarting our Europe live blog ahead of the US-led trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi that seek an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on the eve of the talks that Ukrainian battlefield successes were strengthening Kyiv’s position in negotiations.
The three-sided talks between Ukrainian, Russian and US negotiators are to open on Tuesday and will be the first substantive talks since February aimed at ending the war, which has raged on for more than four-and-a-half years.
“Ukrainian forces are currently genuinely strengthening Ukraine’s negotiating position,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Monday. “Every task that is fully accomplished – every defensive operation that increases Ukraine’s strength and delivers results – strengthens Ukraine and, above all, strengthens us in negotiations.”
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner (who is also Donald Trump’s son-in-law) are to lead the American delegation at the talks, which are scheduled for two days. In Washington, Trump said on Monday that the US was seeing a “very strong inclination” towards ending Russia’s war, and that both sides were “tired of fighting”.
A US official said security guarantees for Ukraine would be a central topic for the discussions, including the potential for Kyiv to be granted a Nato-style article ۵ defence, which protects member states in case of an attack. Any territorial agreement would probably come at the end of negotiations once other items were agreed upon, including a postwar security architecture, the official said.
But Ukraine and Russia have both been adamant about territory, with neither side willing to make any major concessions during previous rounds of diplomacy. Ukraine wants Russia pushed back to the original border between the two countries, while the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, wants to obtain all of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.
European officials, including from France, Germany and the European Commission, will not directly take part in negotiations, as per Russia’s insistence. But instead the Ukrainian delegation, led by foreign intelligence chief Rustem Umerov, will meet separately to brief their European allies on progress.
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The two US envoys met Ukrainian and European officials in Abu Dhabi ahead of the trilateral talks this morning. “Our key priorities are ending the fighting, securing reliable postwar security guarantees, ensuring Ukraine’s economic recovery and development, and taking humanitarian steps,” Umerov wrote in a social media post.
European officials, who have been largely excluded from peace talks, wanted to be involved directly in the talks amid concerns the US administration could try to force through a deal favourable to Russia. Stick with us as we bring you the latest developments from the negotiations and other Europe-related news.
