Ukraine Says Talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi “Substantive and Productive”

The first day of talks among Ukraine, Russia, and the United States aimed at brokering an end to the war concluded Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, with Kyiv describing the negotiations as “substantive and productive.”

Despite the Kremlin repeating its hardline demands ahead of the negotiations, Ukraine’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said the first day had been “substantive and productive, focused on concrete steps and practical solutions.” (Photo: Rustem Umerov X) 

While there was no apparent breakthrough, meetings were set to continue into a second day, Kyiv said, Mumen Khatib reported for Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The US-mediated talks are the latest in a flurry of diplomacy that has so far failed to halt the war, triggered by Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

Highlighting the human toll, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said recently that 55,000 of his country’s troops had been killed, a rare public estimate of battlefield losses that both Moscow and Kyiv do not typically provide.

“And there are a great number Ukraine lists as missing,” he told French TV network France 2, which translated his comments.

The war has spiraled into Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, with hundreds of thousands killed, millions forced to flee their homes, and large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine decimated.

The latest talks followed weeks of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure that have left Kyiv residents in darkness and cold, with temperatures dropping as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius.

Despite the Kremlin repeating its hardline demands ahead of the negotiations, Ukraine’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said the first day had been “substantive and productive, focused on concrete steps and practical solutions.”

Zelensky added that he expected a new prisoner exchange with Russia “in the near future.”