Russia announces trilateral negotiations with Ukraine and the US in November in the United Arab Emirates

Direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, under the mediation of the United States, are scheduled for November, in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said this Friday (23).

Russia showed its willingness to resume peace talks, which have been paralyzed since the beginning of the year, following a meeting held on Wednesday (21) between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff.

The Russian president's top adviser, Yuri Ushakov, stated that "the conflict in Ukraine is coming close to an end", without giving further details.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also expressed support for the initiative.

In an interview with North American TV, also on Wednesday, he proposed "freezing" the battlefront in the war against Russia as a first step towards starting negotiations for a ceasefire.

Zelensky also reiterated that Ukraine needs to participate in any negotiations to end the conflict.

"I've always said that we are open to negotiating in any format, on any topic. But don't talk about us without our presence, please," he said.

Still during the meeting between Putin and Witkoff, Russia announced that it would soon begin sending shipments of diesel to the United States, in an agreement with American President Donald Trump. Moscow also reported that it had released an American citizen who had been detained in the country since the start of the war.

The Ukrainian president also defended that a possible peace agreement include security guarantees offered by international partners, such as the United States and European countries.

According to Zelensky, these guarantees are necessary to prevent the Ukrainian population from facing occupation and violence again.

"This would allow Ukrainians not to be afraid that the occupation will return, that the aggression will return, that the murders will return," he said.