Delegations from Russia and Ukraine will meet in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, on November 10 and 11. This has been confirmed by the Kremlin and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, visiting Berlin this Tuesday. It is the third time this year that delegations from the two enemies will sit face to face in the United Arab Emirates.
Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, has first confirmed the call for the new negotiating round mediated by the United States. Hours earlier, Russian attacks against Ukrainian energy infrastructure have left more than 180,000 citizens without power.
“Trilateral negotiations [with Russia and the United States] are a format that can provide long-term solutions,” Zelensky said during a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Both have asked that Europe also participate in this meeting in the United Arab Emirates. They have also stressed that without European intervention, the end of the war is not possible. “This war will not end without Europe.”
On Monday, the White House special envoy for this and other conflicts, Steve Witkoff, had advanced the news and stated, in a publication on his social networks, that this meeting will address “post-war security agreements, de-escalation, humanitarian measures and the end of the war.”
The last peace talks between both contenders under Washington mediation took place last February also in Abu Dhabi, just before Israel and the United States unleashed their offensive against Iran. That new conflict shifted the focus of international attention from Ukraine to the repercussions of the bombings against the Islamic Republic and the impact of the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz for international markets, especially with regard to oil prices.
The previous meetings in Abu Dhabi, in January and February, had as their main achievement the contact between the two contenders, but no substantive agreements were reached because Russia demands that Ukraine recognize the territories occupied in the invasion as sovereign Russian regions, in addition to demanding that Ukrainian troops withdraw from the sectors of the provinces of Donbas, in the east, that Moscow does not control.
A senior US official later told Reuters that, as on previous occasions, Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, are expected to represent the United States in the new talks. The Kremlin spokesman has stated, for his part, that Vladimir Medinsky, Putin's advisor, will be Moscow's main negotiator.
Putin agreed to a new round of trilateral talks after meeting with Witkoff in St. Petersburg two weeks ago, within what the Trump Administration defines as the last American attempt to stop that conflict, the bloodiest in Europe since World War II.
In the early hours of this Tuesday, Russia launched a multiple bombing attack against energy infrastructures in the Ukrainian regions of Vinnitsia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, cited by the Interfax agency, which has left almost 200,000 people without electricity and caused dozens of injuries, according to the Ukrainian authorities.
Pressure on kyiv
Zelensky recalled that the Ukrainian position is that a truce be immediately applied on the entire front, without demanding conditions for it. “A ceasefire is possible without having to talk about it, but it is the Russians who ask for these meetings to negotiate.”
Merz has been especially harsh in demanding the presence of the Ukrainian president at the next summit of G-20 countries, which will be held in December in Miami, United States. Trump has invited Putin to participate. "It is totally unacceptable that third countries talk about the future of Ukraine without the president of Ukraine. And where Ukraine sits, Europe is represented," Merz said. The German's words also make implicit reference to Trump's attempt to organize a trilateral summit with Putin and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, in which the outcome of the invasion of Ukraine would be discussed.
Trump has been implicated during the election campaign in the United States, which ended on Monday, by harsh criticism against Zelensky, whom he accuses of not wanting to sign peace. On his last visit to Moscow, on October 21, Witkoff caused astonishment by telling Putin that he was a person of peace: "You have said many times about my president that he is a humanitarian person, you are too, and for that I congratulate you and thank you again."
The president of the United States also reached an agreement with Putin in October for Russia to sell diesel to the United States, with the aim of making fuel cheaper before the midterm elections this Tuesday. The decision has been a lifeline for the Russian public coffers, punished by Western sanctions. The White House decision has allowed Moscow to sell fuel in other markets without retaliation from Washington.
German leadership
Zelensky has reiterated his gratitude to German society for its support for Ukraine. Merz has done the same with his fellow citizens. The words of both respond to the growing citizen opposition in Germany to continuing with aid to Ukraine, which is reflected in the electoral growth of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the far-right party that demands to immediately suspend all transfers to the invaded country, economic or military, in addition to returning hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees.
Merz has warned that his Government will expand assistance to Ukraine and has reiterated that if his country is currently the largest contributor to the defense of kyiv, it is out of self-interest: "The future of Europe depends on the outcome of this war, our support is for our interest and security. It is for peace throughout Europe, and I think the majority of Germans understand that." “Germany demonstrates leadership without which the European position would be far from strong,” Zelensky added.
The German Government has approved a new aid package of 200 million euros, according to the DPA agency, especially aimed at containing the hardships of millions of Ukrainians during the winter. The destruction of the electrical system by Russia leaves citizens of large Ukrainian cities without basic services such as electricity, water and heating. Zelensky has announced that the German Executive has committed to transferring new batteries of Iris-T and Patriot anti-aircraft systems.
Zelensky's visit had not been announced until a few hours before landing in Berlin. Security measures in the political neighborhood of the capital have been maximum, in a context of threat of Russian actions in German territory. Since August, there have been at least four police operations against alleged Russian agents on German soil. The moment of greatest tension occurred in August, when drone bombs carried out an unsuccessful attack at Leipzig airport against Ukrainian transport planes. Berlin accused Russia of being behind the attempted attack.
The only gesture of detente offered by Moscow so far is the announcement that, following the coordinated evacuation with kyiv of hundreds of people from the Ukrainian town of Oleshki, occupied by Russian forces since 2022, Russia and Ukraine have agreed to organize periodic humanitarian missions in that town in the Kherson region, partially occupied, as announced on her social networks by the Russian Ombudsman, Yana Lantratova.
Zelensky has stated in Berlin that what happened in Oleshki can serve as a precedent to reach broader truces. The Ukrainian president will continue his new European journey this Wednesday in Brussels, where a conference will be held between representatives of the European Union, the United States and NATO.
