Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on key elements of any prospective deal to end the full-scale war, now nearing its five-year mark. File.
| Photo Credit: AP
The three-way talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States opened on Tuesday (November 10, 2026) in the United Arab Emirates, the head of Kyiv’s delegation said.
“We have moved to a trilateral negotiation format involving Ukraine, the United States and Russia”, Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, said on social media after initial Ukrainian discussions with NATO and European envoys.
The US is renewing a push to end the war between Moscow and Kyiv after three rounds of negotiations earlier this year. The conflict, Europe’s biggest since World War II, began after Russia’s all-out invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
The two-day session in Abu Dhabi, the first such meeting since February, will focus on security guarantees. U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said on X that he and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff were working on a “negotiated solution that can deliver lasting peace and create the conditions for a sovereign, secure, and prosperous Ukraine within a more stable European security environment.”
Mr. Umerov said that the day began with a meeting between the Ukrainian team, the US envoys and representatives from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission.
“Next, we will move to a trilateral format involving Ukraine, the United States and Russia,” Umerov said in a social media post.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported Tuesday (November 10, 2026) that the Russian delegation had arrived at the site of the talks.
Russia and Ukraine hold to their divergent demands
Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on key elements of any prospective deal to end the full-scale war, now nearing its five-year mark.
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to pull its troops back from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — the four regions that Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured. He also demands that Ukraine abandon its bid to join NATO, accept strict limits on its military and drop restrictions on the Russian language and the Moscow-affiliated Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
Mr. Putin wants a comprehensive peace deal on those conditions and won’t agree to a general halt in hostilities, arguing that would only allow Ukrainian troops to rest and replenish their weapons stockpiles. He has warned that Russia will achieve its goals by force if Kyiv refuses to meet its conditions for peace.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejects Mr. Putin’s demands to voluntarily cede territory that Russia has not been able to take on the battlefield. Mr. Zelenskyy also rejects any limits on Ukraine’s military or its arrangements with Western partners, which Kyiv sees as essential security guarantees to stop Moscow from invading again.
Ukraine argues that an immediate ceasefire is the necessary first step toward negotiating a wider settlement and says a direct meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy is the only way territorial issues can be settled.
Russia and Ukraine send experienced negotiators
The Russian and Ukrainian delegations include senior officials who have attended previous rounds of talks.
Russia’s chief negotiator is Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky, who has led Moscow’s team since the first direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul, Turkey, in March 2022. The Russian delegation also includes Deputy Foreign Ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov and deputy chief of the General Staff’s operational department Yuri Zhigarlovsky.
Ukraine’s delegation is led by Rustem Umerov, head of the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service, who also attended earlier talks. It also reportedly includes Mr. Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov, his deputy Sergiy Kyslytsya and Davyd Arakhamia, the parliamentary faction leader of Mr. Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party.
Published – November 10, 2026 12:10 pm IST
