Ukraine: in Abu Dhabi, Washington wants to broaden negotiations to European security

kyiv and Moscow began talks under American mediation in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, with the hope of progressing towards a settlement of the conflict and, according to Washington, of working on a “new” security framework including Europe. This meeting, the first since February and which is due to resume on Wednesday morning, opened with the Russian and Ukrainian delegations facing each other, in the presence of American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, according to AFPTV.

The first day ended after discussions lasting almost four hours. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the talks “very productive.” “We hope to achieve lasting peace in Ukraine,” declared, for his part, at the opening of the negotiations, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Roustem Oumerov, even if kyiv's expectations remain generally very moderate. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, has ravaged the country and left hundreds of thousands dead on both sides, becoming the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

Jared Kushner called for a “new” security framework for Ukraine and Russia but also for Europe, in order to ensure “decades, even centuries, of peace”. Similar position on the Russian side: the settlement of the war in Ukraine “is only one element” of the debate whose “ultimate objective is the creation of a security architecture” for “the entire continent” of Europe, indicated a source within the Russian delegation.

US President Donald Trump, who has strongly criticized kyiv in recent weeks and is accused of wanting to favor economic cooperation with the Kremlin, predicted last week a “very big agreement” with Russia on Ukraine which could “encompass all of Europe”. kyiv and the Europeans reacted to these vague remarks by saying they were opposed to any agreement concluded behind their backs.

“Territorial integrity”

If Europeans and Americans said they were in favor on Tuesday in a joint declaration of a “solid European security architecture and systems for the post-war period”, they insisted on respect for the “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity” of Ukraine. A sign of a certain skepticism, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP, before the talks, that kyiv did not have “particular expectations”. “We will see how things evolve” on site, he said, on condition of anonymity.

An American official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he was “cautiously optimistic”, believing that both kyiv and Moscow “have shown a little flexibility in private” on their positions. “Gaps have narrowed,” Jared Kushner assured Tuesday. The kyiv delegation is led by the negotiator Roustem Oumerov, and that of Moscow by the nationalist historian Vladimir Medinski.

Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the top U.S. commander in Europe, is participating in the talks, according to U.S. military command in Europe. Before the start of the trilateral negotiations, the Ukrainian team met with American envoys and representatives of the United Kingdom, the EU and NATO in order to “align” their positions, Mr. Umerov said. Russia seeks to exclude Europe from discussions and most European leaders have had little to no contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since 2022.

“Partial truces”

On paper, the positions of the two camps remain very far apart. Moscow is demanding in particular the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the entire Donetsk region (east). kyiv refuses to withdraw from this fortified region, whose defense has required immense human sacrifices since the war against pro-Russian separatists that began in 2014, then the invasion of 2022. Ukraine is demanding security guarantees strong enough to dissuade Moscow from attacking it again, including at least ten years of financial support in order to maintain an army of 800,000 men and rebuild its infrastructure.

The Kremlin, for its part, opposes any deployment of European peacekeeping troops. On the ground, Russia continues to shell its neighbor and again, for more than a month, its energy network, raising fears of a new winter without heating, running water or electricity for millions of Ukrainians. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Denmark on Tuesday, where he is due to meet with the leaders of the Nordic countries on the subject of air defense and energy security.