US-led talks to end the war between Russia and Ukraine will resume this week in Abu Dhabi, the New York Times reported, in a fresh diplomatic push that stops short of putting a cease-fire on the table.
The decision to reconvene in the Emirati capital extends a series of trilateral contacts between Russia, Ukraine and the United States, which the Kremlin insisted on Monday would remain in that format. The move comes as heavy fighting and overnight exchanges of drone and missile strikes continue to claim lives, and as Washington weighs how publicly to bind itself to a deal involving not only Ukraine but, in President Donald Trump’s words, “all of Europe”.
A trilateral format under dispute
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the talks should remain trilateral, describing European involvement as running through separate channels. The French foreign minister had said Europe would be represented at the talks, a claim Moscow pushed back against. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had coordinated positions with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ahead of the meeting and was “doing everything to ensure that the trilateral format delivers results”.
Britain’s role in the process remains indirect. London has backed Ukraine with weapons, sanctions against Russia and intelligence support, and Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government has repeatedly said any settlement must respect Ukraine’s sovereignty, but the UK is not a direct party to the Abu Dhabi channel. Any deal that emerges will nonetheless land on Downing Street’s desk the moment it is signed, with consequences for British defence commitments in Europe.
Why it matters
The stakes of the Abu Dhabi round are less about an imminent cease-fire, which is explicitly not on the table, than about whether the diplomatic machinery can be kept alive at all. A stalled process means continued battlefield attrition and continued attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid as winter approaches. A working one means at least a route back to the table. The inclusion of “all of Europe” in the American framing also raises the question of whether a future deal could be struck over the heads of European governments, a fear Kyiv and its partners will be watching closely.
What happens next
The delegations will sit down in Abu Dhabi this week with Ukraine, Russia and the United States in the room and Europe watching from the corridor. Without a cease-fire on the agenda, the immediate measure of success will be whether the talks produce any practical agreements, such as prisoner exchanges, energy infrastructure protections or humanitarian corridors, that can be built on. Whether those talks can evolve into something that actually ends the war is a question that will outlive this week’s meeting.
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