Rubio Calls First Day of Abu Dhabi Ukraine Talks ‘Very Productive’; Sides Meet Again Wednesday

The first day of U.S.-mediated talks among the United States, Ukraine and Russia ended Tuesday in Abu Dhabi after about four hours, with Washington and Kyiv offering cautious public assessments and a second session planned for Wednesday. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking in Paris, called the Ukraine war meeting “very productive” and said it was a goal to bring European voices into the process. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, briefed by Kyiv’s negotiators, said the “trilateral format was constructive and quite substantive.”

The session is the first meeting of the three delegations since February and follows the opening of the two-day round earlier Tuesday. Jared Kushner, a Trump administration envoy and the president’s son-in-law, told delegates at the start that the United States had “narrowed the gaps” between the sides, without giving details, and hoped to move toward a “solution that hopefully ends the war,” the BBC reported. A Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service statement said the talks were expected to resume Wednesday.

What officials said after the first session

Rubio said there was still a lot of work to be done. France 24, citing his remarks in Paris, reported that he called for Europeans to be included at the table “because they are part of solving this problem.” The Guardian, citing Reuters, reported that Rubio said it was a goal at some point to expand the trilateral talks to include other European voices.

Zelenskyy, who was not in the room in Abu Dhabi, was in Denmark to meet Nordic leaders on military aid, air defenses and energy infrastructure. In a post on X quoted by The Guardian, he said he had “gave our team clear instructions for further dialogue – both in the trilateral format tomorrow and more broadly, over the coming days, with envoys of the US President and representatives of Europe.” Speaking to students in Denmark, he said humanitarian issues such as prisoner of war exchanges and bringing back children had been discussed, and that security guarantees were also on the agenda, Reuters reported, according to The Guardian.

France 24, citing Zelenskyy, reported that negotiators were working on a possible “large-scale” exchange of prisoners and that U.S. officials would travel to Russia to discuss it further. He also said it was “time” for Europe to choose a representative for the talks. Asked in Copenhagen about the approach of U.S. officials, Zelenskyy said, “I see changes. I’m very happy with what I hear,” the BBC reported.

Europe’s seat, and a fight over the security order

Kushner told delegates the United States hoped to “create a new framework” of security among Ukraine, Russia and Europe that would secure “decades, if not centuries, of peace,” France 24 reported. That language lands in a sensitive place. European governments were largely left out of earlier rounds and have spent days pressing for a role, even as they warn against any rewrite of Europe’s security order on Moscow’s terms.

France said last weekend that European representatives would join the Abu Dhabi meetings, and G7 foreign ministers met in Paris as Europe sought a louder voice. Umerov, Kyiv’s chief negotiator, met U.S. envoys and European, European Union and NATO officials before the main session. France 24 reported that NATO’s commander in Europe, Alexus Grynkewich, is also taking part, and that a joint statement by the Europeans, Ukraine, the United States and NATO restated a “shared commitment to a strong post-war European security architecture.”

Moscow has long demanded a rollback of NATO in eastern Europe. France 24 noted that Russia’s delegation included Sergei Ryabkov, a deputy foreign minister who carried that pre-invasion demand, and that a Russian delegation source had said settling the war was “merely one item on the agenda” and that Moscow’s main objective was reviewing security “for the entire continent.” Zelenskyy has warned against a “Yalta 2.0.” France 24 quoted him telling Danish media, “Putin wants the USSR back.” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, hosting Zelenskyy on Tuesday, said, “Allowing Russia to decide the borders of Europe will be a huge mistake.”

A U.S. official, speaking on the eve of the talks, told reporters that “the Russians have a bad taste in their mouth with the Europeans,” the BBC reported. The same official said Moscow and Kyiv were privately showing “a little bit of flexibility” on who would control Ukraine’s eastern regions after the war, even as public positions have barely moved.

Territory, a rejected truce, and what is still unresolved

The most immediate territorial dispute remains Donetsk, which is mostly occupied by Russia. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine give up the parts of the region it still holds. Kyiv wants to freeze the contact line. The U.S. official said the public standoff would not be solved until the sides know “what the security architecture is going to be after the war,” and that “we’re not going to be able to finalise one without the other.”

Umerov said Kyiv’s priorities remained a ceasefire and security guarantees. “Our people are waiting to end this war,” he said, according to France 24. Ukrainian and French foreign ministers in Paris commended U.S. efforts to push for “partial truces,” which could be a “first step toward a complete and unconditional ceasefire,” France 24 reported. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, however, said Tuesday that a truce would only allow Kyiv to regroup. “We will not agree to it,” he said, according to the BBC.

President Donald Trump had hinted before the talks that Kyiv might have to give up land, saying, “They’re going to end up with a little bit different shape,” France 24 reported. A senior Ukrainian source told AFP, as reported by France 24, that Ukraine wanted at least 10 years of financial support to sustain an 800,000-strong army able to defend against a future Russian attack. Last month, a local truce in the Kherson region brokered by U.S. first lady Melania Trump became the longest pause in fighting during the war, France 24 said.

The war continued overnight

The fighting did not pause for the meeting. Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said Russia attacked 10 Ukrainian regions overnight and hit five major energy substations that transmit electricity between regions, in the Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia and Kirovohrad regions, The Guardian reported. Russian attacks killed at least nine people and injured 39 others across Ukraine over the past day, according to a report in the Kyiv Independent cited by The Guardian.

Denmark announced a donation of 4.8 billion kroner, about $720 million, in military aid while Zelenskyy was in Copenhagen, The Guardian said, without detailing the equipment or a delivery timetable. The last trilateral rounds this year were held in January and February, including a Geneva session that ended without a breakthrough. After that, the BBC has reported, the U.S.-Israel war on Iran pulled Washington’s attention away, and no further trilateral meetings were held until this week.

Kushner, writing on X before the round, said the Abu Dhabi talks might at most “build momentum toward the next phase of negotiations” and that the United States was “approaching these discussions with determination and realism.” Wednesday’s session will test whether the first day’s public tone is matched by any movement on territory, security guarantees, or the humanitarian file Zelenskyy said was on the table.

Sources

• BBC: First day of Ukraine peace talks constructive, Zelensky says
• The Guardian: Russia-Ukraine talks ‘very productive,’ says US’s Rubio – as it happened
• France 24: Zelensky calls Ukraine-Russia talks ‘constructive’, Rubio wants Europe ‘at the table’