KYIV/ABU DHABI: Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in Abu Dhabi on Friday for two days of talks aimed at resolving key territorial disputes, with no immediate sign of compromise over the four-year war sparked by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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The territorial status of the Donbas region remains the central issue, with Moscow demanding that Ukraine cede the 20 per cent of Donetsk it still controls, while Kyiv insists it will not surrender land that has resisted Russian capture over the past four years of attritional conflict.
Ukraine, Russia, and the US have begun crucial peace talks in the UAE — but the future of the Donbas region remains the biggest roadblock.#UkraineRussiaWar #RussiaUkraine #PeaceTalks #InternationalRelations #GlobalNews #USRussia #Ukraine #Diplomacy #Donbas #MiddleEast pic.twitter.com/lAwqBqFbW4
— Vajiram & Ravi (@VajiramRavi) January 24, 2026
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the Donbas dispute as the “key question” in the talks, which are being mediated by the United States. “It will be discussed how the three sides…see this in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow,” he said in a media chat, a day after meetings with US President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which both leaders described as positive.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand for full control of Donbas remains a major sticking point. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russia’s insistence on Ukraine yielding the region is “a very important condition.” Moscow is reportedly pushing an “Anchorage formula” from an August summit with Trump, under which Russia would control all of Donbas and freeze front lines elsewhere in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The UAE talks are the first trilateral meetings involving Ukrainian and Russian envoys with US mediators since the conflict began. Russia’s delegation is led by Admiral Igor Kostyukov, head of Russian military intelligence, while Ukraine is represented by Rustem Umerov, secretary of Kyiv’s National Security and Defence Council.
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Zelensky also said a deal on US security guarantees for Ukraine is ready, pending a formal date and venue for signing. Meanwhile, Russia has proposed using nearly $5 billion in frozen US assets to fund recovery of Russian-occupied territory, an idea Zelensky dismissed as “nonsense.” Ukraine continues to demand reparations from Russia as part of any comprehensive peace settlement.