November 10, 2026 | Ukraine Peace Talks

Negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the United States opened two days of talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, their first trilateral meeting since February, in a renewed American push to end a war now in its fifth year. The Abu Dhabi Ukraine talks put two questions at the centre of the agenda: what protects Ukraine after any settlement, and who controls the land Russia has seized.

The two-day session, scheduled to run through Wednesday, is the fourth round of trilateral talks. All three previous rounds ended without a significant breakthrough. This time Washington is tying the Ukraine question to a wider bargain on Europe’s security, a shift that has brought European officials to Abu Dhabi even though Russia insists they stay out of the room with its own delegation.

What Is on the Table at the Abu Dhabi Ukraine Talks?

Security guarantees for Ukraine top the agenda, the White House said before the discussions began. American officials have said they discussed with Russia the possibility of security guarantees for Kyiv similar to Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty, the alliance’s collective-defence pledge.

Territory is the other question, and the hardest. A US official briefing reporters on Monday said both sides were privately showing some flexibility on a possible exchange of territory, even though their public positions have not moved. Ukraine wants Russian forces pushed back to the countries’ original border. President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to surrender the entire Donbas region, including land his forces do not hold.

Any agreement on territory would likely come at the end of the negotiations, the US official said, once the other items are settled — above all the post-war security architecture. That sequencing is deliberate: neither side is expected to give ground on land until it knows what guarantees would follow.

Who Is Leading Each Delegation?

The United States is represented by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, who are leading Washington’s mediation effort.

Ukraine’s delegation is led by Rustem Umerov, the head of the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service and its top negotiator. His team includes presidential chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov, first deputy head of the President’s Office Serhii Kyslytsia, parliamentary leader Davyd Arakhamia and deputy military intelligence chief Vadym Skibitsky.

Russia’s delegation is again headed by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, who has led Moscow’s team since the first direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in March 2022. The 11-person delegation also includes deputy foreign ministers Sergei Ryabkov — taking part for the first time — and Mikhail Galuzin, military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov and senior general staff officer Yuri Zhigarlovsky.

Why Is Europe in Abu Dhabi but Not in the Room?

Representatives from the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy, as well as NATO and the European Commission, are also in the UAE capital. On Tuesday morning, before the trilateral session began, the Ukrainian delegation met them together with the American envoys to coordinate positions.

Russia has made clear it wants the negotiations to be strictly trilateral. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Europe has its own channels of communication with Kyiv and Washington, while reaffirming that the talks are “a trilateral negotiation — involving Russia and Ukraine — with the United States acting as a mediator.”

The Europeans are pushing back against being sidelined. The Elysée Palace in Paris said on Tuesday that “the pursuit of peace in Ukraine and security in Europe are inextricably linked.” Umerov said on Monday that Ukraine was “doing everything we can to ensure that Europe is a participant in the diplomatic process.”

Witkoff said on Tuesday that he and Kushner had met Ukrainian and European partners to continue “close coordination on efforts to end the war in Ukraine and establish the conditions for a durable peace, including support for robust security guarantees as part of any settlement.” In a post on X, he added that the participants had “reaffirmed their shared commitment to a strong post-war European security architecture” and that “a strong NATO will remain central to Euro-Atlantic collective defense.”

Russia, for its part, sees the wider security question as the main point of the meeting. A source in the Russian delegation told Reuters that Moscow believes the main thrust of the talks will be hammering out the key elements of a new post-war security framework for Europe. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that security issues concerning Russia, Ukraine and Europe as a whole stand first on the agenda.

How Likely Is a Breakthrough?

Expectations are low. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after the February round in Geneva that the talks had fallen short of Ukraine’s goals, with “sensitive political matters, issues of possible compromises and the necessary meeting of leaders” not sufficiently worked through. A further round planned for March was postponed because of the war in Iran.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said on Monday she saw little sign that Russia was willing to negotiate in good faith. John Herbst, a former US ambassador to Ukraine now at the Atlantic Council, said expectations for Abu Dhabi should be “very modest,” arguing the talks were taking place because Putin wants to give Trump a reason to keep distancing himself from Ukraine.

Trump himself sounded more upbeat. He said on Monday that Washington was seeing a “strong inclination” to end the war, and last week, after meeting Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev at the White House, he predicted a “big, beautiful agreement” that could involve all of Europe. In a “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Sunday, he suggested Ukraine would “end up with a little bit different shape” — a scenario Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected.

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said on Monday that Ukrainian battlefield successes and mounting Russian losses were strengthening Kyiv’s position at the table. He has also said publicly that he hopes the Democrats’ midterm victories — the “blue wave” that will hand them control of Congress in January — can bolster American support for Ukraine.

What Is Happening on the Battlefield While They Talk?

The fighting has not paused for the diplomacy. Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid left more than 600,000 people in the Dnipropetrovsk region without electricity overnight into Sunday, Zelenskyy said, as temperatures fall and winter draws in. The toll from the November 2 Russian strike on a school building used as a shelter and aid centre in Komyshuvakha has risen to at least 55 people, making it one of the deadliest single incidents of the war.

Civilian deaths in Ukraine are at their highest point since the start of the war, with more than 2,700 people killed in Russian strikes so far this year, according to ACLED, a global conflict monitor. Russia has also deployed faster, jet-powered Shahed drones that are harder to shoot down, while more missiles are slipping through Ukraine’s air defences as Kyiv grapples with a chronic shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors.

The war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, is Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II. It is now in its fifth year, and gains on the battlefield remain difficult to come by for either side.

What to Watch

• Whether the two days produce any joint statement or agreed text on security guarantees.
• Whether European officials are brought into the room with Russia before the session ends on Wednesday.
• Any public signal on territory — and whether the private flexibility described by the US official survives contact with the delegations.
• Whether the fighting eases, even briefly, while the talks are under way.

Sources and Verification

1. Associated Press, 10 November 2026 — three-way talks opened Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, the first such meeting since February; focus on security guarantees; Kushner’s post on X; Umerov’s coordination meeting with European and US officials; Russian delegation’s arrival reported by RIA Novosti.
2. Reuters, 10 November 2026 — two days of US-brokered talks, the first since February; Trump suggesting a broad deal was possible; European officials present but Russia excluding them from negotiations; delegations and the 0630 GMT start.
3. Reuters, 9 November 2026 — US official briefing: both sides privately showing flexibility on a possible territorial exchange; security guarantees, including a possible NATO-style Article 5 defence for Kyiv, a major topic; Witkoff and Kushner leading US mediation.
4. Reuters, 10 November 2026 — Russian delegation source: the main thrust of the talks is hammering out key elements of a new post-war security framework for Europe; 11-person delegation led by Medinsky.
5. CNN, 9–10 November 2026 — talks under way in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday; Kushner’s opening remarks on security relationships; Kallas on good faith; Herbst on modest expectations; ACLED civilian toll; power outages in Dnipropetrovsk; Trump’s “different shape” remark.

Bottom line: The Abu Dhabi Ukraine talks are the first time in nine months that Russia, Ukraine and the United States have sat down together — but the gap between them has not narrowed in public, and the most that can realistically be expected from two days in Abu Dhabi is a test of whether the private flexibility Washington claims to see can survive the room.