American, Ukrainian and Russian representatives gathered in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for their latest round of trilateral peace talks, with President Donald Trump’s administration seeking a diplomatic breakthrough after 1,721 days of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
Trump — who came to office vowing to end the war within 24 hours — has thus far been unable to force a breakthrough. His chief negotiating envoys, Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are leading the U.S. delegation in Abu Dhabi this week.
On Monday, Trump struck a positive tone when discussing the coming meeting. “They talk about wars, Ukraine and Russia. And by the way, we’re having a very good conversation about that in Abu Dhabi,” the president said.
“Ukraine and Russia are tired of fighting. They’re tired of seeing dead young soldiers,” Trump added.
A source in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office told ABC News that Kyiv’s delegation is led by Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service and its lead representative in previous rounds of talks. Among those accompanying him are Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Zelenskyy’s office, and Davyd Arakhamia, the head of Zelenskyy’s party in the Ukrainian parliament.
The Russian delegation is led by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. Also attending are Kremlin official Yuri Ushakov, the head of Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency, Igor Kostyukov, and Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, Peskov said.
The first U.S.-brokered trilateral meeting was held in Geneva in February 2026, but this year has seen little diplomatic progress, with both camps still far apart on key issues. The negotiations have secured some prisoner-of-war exchanges and short-lived, localized ceasefires.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday that this week’s talks will put “security issues concerning Russia, Ukraine and the region as a whole” at the top of the agenda. The participants would also work toward “agreeing on principles that could be approved following consultations on a comprehensive settlement of the conflict in Ukraine,” Lavrov said.
Zelenskyy said Monday that he had spoken with European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen ahead of the talks. Both the French and German foreign ministers also said they would be participating in the Abu Dhabi meetings, though Peskov maintained that the talks would remain trilateral in format.
A statement posted to the Ukrainian presidential website said Kyiv “is doing everything to ensure that the trilateral format delivers results.”
Delegation head Umerov, meanwhile, said in a post to Telegram on Tuesday morning that Kyiv’s team is prioritizing “ending hostilities, reliable post-war security guarantees, economic recovery and development of Ukraine, and humanitarian measures.”
With the war approaching its fifth anniversary, the two combatants appear far apart on a potential settlement. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly rejected U.S.-Ukrainian proposals for a ceasefire under which a final settlement could be negotiated.
Moscow is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from four contested regions — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — the Kremlin claimed to have annexed in September 2022, after referendums that the international community largely refused to recognize. Putin also wants Ukraine permanently barred from NATO and to face limits on the size and capabilities of its military.
Zelenskyy has said Ukraine cannot agree to any deal that does not include concrete security guarantees from the U.S. and other NATO allies to protect against renewed Russian aggression.
Kyiv, Zelenskyy said, must also retain the right to constitute its own armed forces and choose its own future security arrangements, including membership of NATO. The Ukrainian leader has refused Russian demands to cede territory not controlled by Moscow’s forces.
Since Trump returned to office, U.S.-Ukrainian ties have at times been fraught. The president has repeatedly pressured Zelenskyy to make concessions to Moscow in pursuit of a peace deal. Trump has described Zelenskyy at times as a “dictator” and criticized Kyiv for delaying planned elections, which constitutionally cannot be held while the country is under martial law.
Trump has suspended U.S. financial and military aid to Ukraine, instead demanding that other NATO allies purchase American arms intended for Ukraine’s use. Kyiv has repeatedly appealed to the U.S. to provide more ammunition for its Patriot surface-to-air missile systems in particular, the systems key to Ukrainian efforts to blunt escalating Russian drone and ballistic missile strikes.
In March, Trump threatened to expand sanctions and tariffs on Russia in a bid to push Moscow to the negotiating table. Ultimately Trump failed to do so, and in the lead-up to this month’s midterm elections struck a deal with Putin to import cargoes of Russian diesel — a move that prompted criticism from domestic opponents, foreign allies and Kyiv.
Trump told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” program on Sunday that he still believes an agreement to end Russia’s full-scale invasion is possible. “I believe that that war is going to end and it’s going to end soon. And the only reason it’s going to end is because of me,” Trump said.
Trump also appeared to imply that he was open to changes in Ukraine’s borders as part of a peace agreement, saying that the country will end up with “a little bit different shape Ukraine.”
Trump said the enmity between Putin and Zelenskyy was the prime obstacle to a deal: “There’s tremendous hatred,” he said. Asked whether that sentiment is understandable coming from Zelenskyy, given that his country was invaded, Trump said it is, but also suggested that Ukraine had disrespected Russia during an initial meeting.
“Well, it is, but when they had their first meeting, there was great disrespect shown to Russia. So I’m not going to say,” Trump said. Asked if he thought Putin was stringing him along, Trump replied, “Oh, I don’t think so.”
A U.S. official told ABC News during a briefing on Monday that negotiators were “cautiously optimistic” ahead of the talks in Abu Dhabi, though framed the meeting as a jumping off point for more complex negotiations to end the war.
“While both parties remain skeptical of the other party’s intentions, we do see promising signs as the mediator, and we’re going to work to keep pushing to build the areas of common ground so that we can work to a conclusion,” the U.S. official said.
Trump’s comments and conduct have deepened concerns in Ukraine that the president wants the victims of the war, rather than the aggressors, to pay the price for peace, Oleksandr Merezhko — a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee — told ABC News.
Merezhko said he has “absolutely no hopes” for this week’s meetings in Abu Dhabi, beyond possible new deals to exchange prisoners of war. “There can’t be any tangible result because Putin keeps insisting on his absurd demands which, in reality, mean surrender for Ukraine,” he said.
“Putin’s goal is to imitate negotiations to avoid sanctions from Trump. But he has absolutely no intent to negotiate with a goal to reach a concrete result,” Merezhko suggested. “His ultimate goal is not a ceasefire or a compromise; his goal is subjection of Ukraine and installment in Kyiv of a Russian puppet regime.”
Both Russian and American officials have said that the Abu Dhabi talks will include discussions on broader European security arrangements. That “seems to be new,” said Samuel Charap, a senior political scientist at RAND who has advocated for talks.
Still, Charap told ABC News, “They‘re not going to come to some radically more ambitious agreement given there hasn’t been any conversation for the past nine months.”
Putin launched the invasion in February 2022 with the intention of dismembering Ukraine and installing a pliant government in Kyiv. The “special military operation,” as the Kremlin termed the assault, marked the latest chapter in Moscow’s decades-long effort to retain influence over Kyiv and undermine Ukraine’s relations with the European Union and NATO.
What the Kremlin intended as a short campaign has now lasted longer than either World War I or the Soviet Union’s confrontation with Nazi Germany in World War II, known in Russia as Great Patriotic War.
Russian officials routinely describe the war with Ukraine as a direct contest with the NATO alliance, whose constituent nations rallied to support Ukraine military and financially, added two new members — Sweden and Finland — and sought to increase collective military spending to meet the Russian threat.
Fierce fighting continues all along the 745-mile frontline. The invasion quickly devolved into a bloody war of attrition, with Russian units edging forward — at massive cost, according to figures published by the Ukrainian military and broadly supported by Western intelligence assessments — along the contact line in parts of eastern and southeastern Ukraine.
This year has seen significant Ukrainian counterattacks in the contested Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, liberating hundreds of miles of occupied territory, according to commanders in Kyiv.
Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine have expanded their long-range strike campaigns through the course of 2026. Each night, hundreds and sometimes thousands of drones and missiles cross the shared border heading in both directions, with Kyiv and Moscow both among the regular targets.
The number of civilian casualties is steadily creeping up as a result, particularly among Ukrainians.
Overnight into Tuesday, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 162 drones, of which 96 were jet-powered, and one ballistic missile into the country. The air force said that 135 drones, of which 70 were jet-powered, were shot down or otherwise suppressed. Impacts were reported across 19 locations, the air force said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed at least 155 Ukrainian drones overnight.
ABC News’ Victoria Beaule, Oleksiy Pshemyskyi, Natalia Kushnir, Tanya Stukalova, Anna Sergeeva, Shannon K. Kington and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
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