U.S. and Russian representatives are holding talks in Abu Dhabi on a plan to end the war in Ukraine, according to both American and Russian media reports.
The U.S. side is represented by Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll and several diplomats. The makeup of the Russian delegation is unclear. A senior U.S. official told CNN that Vladimir Putin approved Russia’s participation and that the dialogue is meant to lay the groundwork for “higher-level engagement in the future.”
Driscoll met Russian representatives last night, with another round scheduled for today, November 25.
The Financial Times reports that Driscoll is also expected to meet in Abu Dhabi with Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence. Meanwhile, Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security Council, said the Ukrainian and American delegations had reached “a common understanding” on key terms of a ceasefire agreement.
An unnamed U.S. administration official also told CBS that Ukraine has agreed to a peace deal, with only minor details left to iron out.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the reports, said Moscow has “nothing to say about the course of the negotiating process on Ukraine.”
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov laid out Russia’s position in more detail. He said Moscow had received President Donald Trump’s plan through unofficial channels “and is ready to discuss it,” while noting there are “a number of questions that require clarification.”
“Moscow will continue to insist on the need to focus on eliminating the root causes of the crisis. In any case, Trump’s desire to immediately stop the bloodshed deserves every encouragement,” Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted Lavrov as saying.
The foreign minister added that Russia does not intend to “rush to the negotiating table.”
“All the ‘eight wars’ that Trump ‘stopped’ froze for a time. Ceasefires were declared. And then what? The outlook is hardly optimistic: problems have already begun on the Cambodia–Thailand border, between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and, to put it mildly, things are far from smooth on the Israeli-Palestinian track,” Lavrov said.
He also criticized European politicians who, in his view, are “engaging in leaks to undermine the agreements reached in Alaska.”
Earlier, on November 23 in Geneva, the United States, Ukraine and European countries held talks on Trump’s peace plan. As a result, the American proposal was pared down from 28 points to 19.
