Talks aimed at ending Russia's war in Ukraine to resume

But expectations of a breakthrough are low because Putin is showing no sign of wanting to halt the conflict

Negotiators from the US, Ukraine and Russia will gather in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for their first trilateral talks since February, reviving a diplomatic effort to end the war that stalled after Donald Trump launched his military campaign against Iran.

The two days of talks would focus on postwar security arrangements for Russia and Ukraine and issues of territory in eastern Ukraine, US officials said. Washington saw resolving both sets of issues in tandem as crucial to ending the war, they added.

The discussions build on a flurry of diplomatic contacts last month, with US officials saying they are now in daily contact with the Russians and Ukrainians.

But expectations of a breakthrough remain low, with Russian President Vladimir Putin showing little sign of a willingness to end the conflict, now in its fifth year.

A US official said the Trump administration was seeking to get Russia to agree to multilateral talks involving European officials. "We do believe very strongly that at this point, in order to end the war, you really need to have Europe at the table," they added.

The efforts are likely to come as a relief in Europe. The Trump administration's suggestion last week of a new European security "framework" negotiated with Moscow alarmed European capitals, which insisted they must be involved in any such talks and that a settlement in Ukraine must come first.

Ahead of Tuesday's talks, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were set to meet officials from Ukraine, the EU and Nato as well as Germany, France, the UK and Italy for consultations.

The US president said last week he hoped talks with Russia would produce "a big, beautiful deal" extending far beyond Ukraine.

The US official said the administration had asked Moscow if it would object to Washington providing Ukraine with an "Article 5-like" security guarantee, referring to Nato's collective defence clause, and for the alliance to offer the same.

Any final decision on the nature of a US security guarantee would ultimately be up to Trump, they added.

Russia has said it welcomes the shift to discussing future postwar security guarantees but has otherwise shown no indication Putin is prepared to make concessions.

Putin sees this winter as an ideal juncture to weaken Ukraine through a devastating campaign of air strikes on its infrastructure, according to people briefed on his thinking.

Putin has demanded Ukrainian forces withdraw from areas of the frontline Donbas region under Kyiv's control as a precondition for a ceasefire and would link any future security guarantees to more territorial concessions, they said.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for his part, has said that any talks on territory could only be held in a meeting between leaders.

Senior Ukrainian officials said their expectations for the Abu Dhabi talks were low, echoing Zelenskyy's recent warnings that Moscow was determined to continue fighting rather than negotiate any settlement.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said on Monday that the discussions would be devoted to "agreeing on the principles that will be approved once talks on a full settlement are finalised".

Rustem Umerov, one of Ukraine's leading negotiators, said his side would "hold separate co-ordination meetings" with European partners in Abu Dhabi to "ensure our positions are aligned, and share a common understanding of the next steps in the negotiation process".

He said Kyiv was "doing everything possible to ensure Europe is part of the diplomatic process" to bring Russia's war on Ukraine to an end.

Russia indicated that it would not meet directly with European officials in Abu Dhabi.

"The Americans and the Ukrainians have their channels of communication with the Europeans and they already seem to be setting up their own co-ordination mechanism. But these are three-party talks between Russia and Ukraine with US mediation," Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesperson, told reporters.

European diplomats said that while they were sceptical about the likelihood of potential breakthroughs in Abu Dhabi, they recognised the need to maintain contact with the process to both support Ukraine and ensure wider questions about European security were not raised in their absence.

European officials said they were open to discussions on the restoration of cold war-era deconflicting mechanisms, such as the Open Skies agreement that allowed for the US and USSR to conduct surveillance of each other's military installations or treaties limiting the deployment of certain missiles.

Kushner said in a post on social media on Monday that discussions on European security agreements would centre on "stronger consultation, reliable crisis communications, greater military transparency, and reciprocal measures to reduce escalation risks".