US seeks to bridge gaps at first Russia-Ukraine peace talks in nine months

Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for their ‌first ​peace talks since February as US President Donald Trump's envoys launched a new push to end the war in Ukraine. The US-brokered meeting followed US contacts with both sides in recent weeks that Trump's representative Jared Kushner said had narrowed the gaps between their positions.

Addressing delegates at the start of the meeting, Kushner said the United States had some good ideas on how to make progress, and ‌Trump was committed to achieving peace. "He really has asked us to put extra effort into trying to find a solution that hopefully ends the war but also leaves both sides in a much stronger position" to realise their full potential, Kushner said.

Despite US optimism, the warring sides remain far apart on terms for a possible settlement, more than 4-1/2 years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia controls about a fifth of its neighbour's territory. The first round of talks ended without any immediate statement from any of the parties. A second ‌day of negotiations was scheduled for Wednesday.

Trump has intensified pressure on Kyiv to reach some kind of deal, saying last month it was time for Ukraine to end the war or face "a very bad thing". Last week he said the war was close ‌to being settled in a "big beautiful agreement" that might involve the security of all Europe. But he has frequently predicted breakthroughs that have not materialised.

Ukraine's chief delegate, Rustem Umerov, said in his opening remarks that Kyiv was focused on achieving security guarantees and a lasting peace. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov underlined Moscow's preference for negotiating a broad European security framework before tackling the specifics of the war.

"The idea of defining clear parameters for a future security architecture, and only then moving on to resolving the actual Russia-Ukraine conflict, is absolutely reasonable," he told reporters in Moscow. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday voiced the opposite view, saying wider ⁠security talks should come ​only after a ceasefire. Lavrov again rejected the notion of a truce, ⁠saying the Europeans were trying to secure breathing space for Ukraine.

EUROPEANS SEEK A ROLE The new American drive for a deal has galvanized European officials into pushing for a place at the table to seek an end to Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.

Before the start of the main meeting, the Ukrainians ⁠met separately with European, NATO and European Union representatives and the two American envoys, Kushner and Steve Witkoff. France said there could be no lasting peace in Ukraine without addressing European security, and that this required the involvement of the Europeans.

Russia had made clear it did not see a place for ​Europeans at the meeting with the Ukrainians and Americans. On the eve of the talks, Trump said Washington was seeing a "very strong inclination" towards ending the war, and that both sides were "tired of fighting".

Overnight, Russian forces struck 10 Ukrainian regions ⁠in air attacks that targeted five major electrical substations, caused widespread power outages and killed two people, officials said. Russia said an industrial facility was damaged in a Ukrainian drone attack in the northern city of Novgorod. Industry sources told Reuters Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries since late October had cut Russia's refining capacity by about ⁠30%.

Publicly, ​there has been no sign that Russian President Vladimir Putin is willing to drop his demand that Ukraine surrender the entire eastern region of Donbas before a peace deal can be struck. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has refused to hand over land that his forces have died defending.

Russian frontline advances have slowed to a virtual halt but Moscow has been pounding Ukrainian cities and energy facilities, while Ukraine has stepped up attacks on oil refineries and other infrastructure deep inside Russia. Zelenskiy said on the eve of negotiations that Ukraine's leverage ⁠was increasing as a result of its recent battlefield performance, which included retaking some territory in Donetsk, a coal-mining area of the Donbas.

"Ukrainian forces are currently genuinely strengthening Ukraine's negotiating position," Zelenskiy said on Monday. He said Russia was suffering "record losses" — an assertion disputed ⁠by Moscow — and urged Washington to convince the Kremlin to end the ⁠war. US negotiators believe Zelenskiy and Putin may be willing to reach a compromise on territory, with each ceding a little, a US official told Reuters on Monday.

Under the proposed deal, Ukraine would get an end to the war, security guarantees and a roadmap to accession to the EU. A senior Ukrainian official denied the government would consider such concessions, saying territorial issues could be discussed only ‌at the leaders' level and in the ‌context of appropriate security guarantees for Ukraine.

(Additional reporting by Dan Flynn and Yuliia Dysa in Kyiv, Steve Holland in Washington and John ​Irish in Paris, Writing by Mark Trevelyan, Editing by Timothy Heritage)