Russia, Ukraine and US to meet as Zelenskyy claims battlefield successes

The meeting in the capital of the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday will be the third round of talks there this year, following security consultations in January and February. The US side is led by US President Donald Trump's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who have spearheaded Washington's mediation.

The three delegations last met in Geneva on February 18. Zelenskyy emphasized Ukraine's military progress in his nightly video address on Monday, stating that Ukrainian forces are "currently genuinely strengthening Ukraine's negotiating position." He claimed Russia was "suffering record losses," a claim Moscow disputes.

Zelenskyy said General Mykhailo Drapatyi had presented a report on Ukraine's military positions that pointed to heavy recent Russian losses, and that Ukraine's long-range strikes on targets inside Russia, including oil facilities, were having an effect.

Trump's optimism

In Washington, DC, Trump told reporters that he saw a "very strong inclination" towards ending the war and that both sides were "tired of fighting". "We're having a very good conversation about that in Abu Dhabi," he said.

Trump had promised to end the war quickly when he took office in January 2025, but a settlement has remained elusive nearly five years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. A US official, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity, said on Monday that both Russia and Ukraine had privately shown some flexibility on a possible exchange of territory.

Territory concerns

Security guarantees for Ukraine would be a central topic, the official said, including the possibility of a defence commitment modelled on Article 5 of NATO's founding treaty. Both Ukraine and Russia have been adamant about territory.

Ukraine wants Russia pushed back to the original border between the two countries, while Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to obtain all of the Donbas region. Russia occupies roughly 20 percent of Ukraine, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region.

The US official said any territorial agreement would most likely come at the end of the negotiations, once other issues, including a post-war security framework, had been settled.

European exclusion

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio meanwhile struck a cautious note, saying that the process to end the war still has "a ways to go". "We'll keep trying. And that's what we've been trying to do the whole time is try to be creative and find ways that we can help bring that conflict and that war to an end," Rubio said.

Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service, will again lead the country's delegation, according to The Kyiv Independent. Russia's team will be headed by Vladimir Medinsky, a Kremlin aide, and will include Sergei Ryabkov, a deputy foreign minister, as well as Yuri Zhigarlovsky, a senior military officer.

European powers, including France, Germany and the European Commission, will send officials to the talks in Abu Dhabi, but Russia has made it clear it doesn't want the Europeans to take part in negotiations. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said the talks would focus on security guarantees.