Putin, Zelenskyy, and Trump to get together in a historic first

For the first time since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, officials from Kyiv and Moscow will sit at the same negotiating table with the United States. The venue: Abu Dhabi, and the format: trilateral, give the moment diplomatic weight. But beneath the symbolism, the substance remains stubbornly unchanged.

The talks follow a flurry of high-level diplomacy involving US President Donald Trump, who met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Davos before dispatching envoys to Moscow for what the Kremlin described as an unusually candid exchange with Vladimir Putin. The meetings have revived momentum after months of stalled contacts, yet they also underline how narrow the path to an agreement remains.

At the heart of the impasse is territory. Russia continues to insist that any settlement must include Ukraine’s withdrawal from parts of eastern Ukraine that Kyiv still controls. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly rejected that demand, calling it a red line that would reward military aggression. Nothing in the lead-up to the Abu Dhabi talks suggests either side has shifted.

Russian officials have framed the discussions as focused on “security issues,” with a delegation that includes senior military figures. Ukraine, for its part, is sending its chief negotiator, signalling that Kyiv is willing to engage but not concede. Zelenskyy has described the talks as a step forward – careful language that reflects progress in process rather than outcome.

US officials have suggested the negotiations are now “down to one issue,” a phrase widely interpreted as a reference to territorial control in the Donbas. That framing itself highlights the problem: when a single issue defines the war’s outcome, compromise becomes exponentially harder.

The Kremlin has been explicit that without resolution on territory, there can be no lasting peace. Russian spokespeople have reiterated that military operations will continue until Moscow’s conditions are met, even as talks proceed in parallel. It is diplomacy conducted under fire – and with no pause button.

Trump has floated alternative ideas in the past, including economic arrangements for eastern Ukraine, but those proposals have yet to gain visible traction with either Kyiv or Moscow. For now, the Abu Dhabi meeting appears less about closing a deal than about testing whether dialogue can coexist with entrenched positions.

In that sense, the talks mark a diplomatic milestone without guaranteeing a diplomatic shift. The fact that Ukraine and Russia are speaking together at all is notable. But the fact that they remain so far apart on the central question of land suggests that the war’s most difficult chapter, deciding where borders will lie, is still very much unwritten.