What Will the Ukraine-Russia Talks in Abu Dhabi Cover?

Days before US-mediated delegations meet in Abu Dhabi, each side has described the talks in different words. Volodymyr Zelensky said on 4 November that he spent ninety minutes on the phone with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and that a trilateral meeting of teams is “less than a week” away. Kushner then wrote on X that Washington wants more than a halt to the fighting, and Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s investment envoy, answered on the same platform. Dmitriev called the two Americans “peacemakers”, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the agenda is “security guarantees of the parties”.

The meeting is set for 10 and 11 November, as Witkoff announced on 3 November. What is new since then is the vocabulary: Ukraine asks for guarantees that are “ironclad”, Washington speaks of an architecture, Moscow of the security of both sides.

Zelensky says Kyiv has already handed Washington its proposals and wants Patriot interceptors discussed alongside the talks. Kushner says the US is working on a security architecture meant to stop the war from restarting. Peskov says the Abu Dhabi agenda is security and that details stay behind closed doors. Russia’s delegation will again be led by Vladimir Medinsky, Peskov said.

Zelensky described the call in a post on 4 November, whose text Ukrainian outlets reproduced. In a translation from his Ukrainian text, he wrote: “We are preparing for a trilateral format at the level of teams between Ukraine, the United States and Russia, in less than a week.” He said the call lasted an hour and a half and covered Ukraine’s proposals, which Kyiv has already passed to the American side. He added that air defence was on the agenda, with a request for interceptors for Patriot systems, and that the two sides also discussed bilateral cooperation under the Drone Deals initiative.

He also reported two meetings in Brussels. The first, on post-war reconstruction, brought together Ukraine, the US, the European Union, France, Britain, Germany, NATO, the World Bank and business representatives. A second, on security guarantees, was scheduled in Brussels for Thursday 5 November. His summary: “There is no alternative to peace, and the guarantees of post-war security must be truly ironclad.”

Kushner answered on X, in a post reported in the early hours of 5 November. He wrote that the American focus goes beyond ending the war to a broader security architecture, so that fighting does not resume once it stops. He said the US is working with all sides under Donald Trump’s direction, and he praised what he called the constructive engagement of Zelensky and his team.

Dmitriev answered on X. His post said Kushner and Witkoff are “peacemakers”. Dmitriev has said before that he is in regular contact with both envoys about the restoration of diesel supplies and the lifting of sanctions, and a trip by the two Americans to Moscow that had been planned was postponed, according to Russian reports.

Peskov spoke on 4 November to a journalist from the Kremlin pool, Alexander Yunashev, who asked whether the American midterm results could complicate dialogue with Moscow. In a translation from the Russian, Peskov said: “President Trump continues to carry out his powers, and we sincerely count on him continuing his peacemaking efforts. There is some groundwork, and very soon there will be another round of trilateral talks.” Asked whether a Congress controlled by Democrats could obstruct the President’s diplomacy, he answered: “That is America’s internal affair.”

In remarks reported in the same hours, Peskov said the Abu Dhabi meeting will be devoted to questions of security and “guarantees of security of the parties”, with the details discussed behind closed doors. He said the dates were not tied to the congressional elections and that the Kremlin will announce the Russian delegation’s composition in due course, adding that Medinsky will lead it as before.

Four markers will show whether the vocabulary converges. The first is whether the Brussels meeting on 5 November produces any named guarantor. The second is whether the Kremlin publishes the Russian delegation beyond Medinsky. The third is whether Washington describes the 10 and 11 November round afterwards as a security negotiation or as a step toward a leaders’ meeting. The fourth is whether Zelensky’s request for Patriot interceptors, which comes as Kyiv warns of a missile shortage, is answered before the delegations sit down. Zelensky arrived in Madrid on 4 November for the Ibero-American Summit and was due to meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on 5 November, with a number of other leaders to follow, according to the Spanish government.