US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff has announced that talks between Ukraine and Russia, mediated by the United States, will take place in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11. According to RBC-Ukraine, he wrote about this on social media platform X. The meeting will be held at a working level: the parties will focus on post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, and humanitarian issues, as well as discuss further steps toward peace. In Washington, this round is linked to President Donald Trump's mission to end the war.
Meeting Format and Agenda
According to the American side, the format of the Abu Dhabi round is working-level, meaning without the mandatory presence of heads of state at the initial stage. The agenda, as follows from Witkoff's statement, includes three blocks: post-war security guarantees, de-escalation mechanisms, and humanitarian issues. The task of discussing "further steps toward peace" is highlighted separately. Witkoff emphasized that Washington expects to consolidate the results of previous rounds held in Kyiv, Oslo, and Saint Petersburg, and to arrive at a "comprehensive, sustainable peace treaty that will ensure lasting security for future generations."
Diplomatic Preparation
Preparation for the Abu Dhabi round, according to available information, took several weeks. On October 27, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin and urged him to stop the war; prior to the call, both leaders consulted with Kyiv to convey the Ukrainian position on the upcoming talks to Moscow. In addition, this week, ahead of Abu Dhabi, American negotiators plan a trip to Brussels, where they will meet with representatives from France, Germany, the UK, the EU, and NATO to synchronize allies' positions before the working round.
Discrepancy in Dates
The timeline of the meeting in the public space does not yet match. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk previously named November 4 as the preliminary date for the trilateral meeting in the UAE, but the Ukrainian side did not confirm this date: according to David Arakhamia, head of the Servant of the People faction, the parties were finalizing the date and waiting for confirmation from the US delegation. Now, according to the American side, the negotiations are scheduled for November 10–11. Thus, the final date announced by Washington has shifted relative to the preliminary one named by Warsaw.
Kyiv's Position and Expectations
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in turn, expressed a desire to hold a meeting with the US and Russian delegations in Abu Dhabi even before the planned negotiations between the US, China, and Russia. This indicates Kyiv's desire to formalize bilateral and trilateral agreements before the format expands to other powers. Against the backdrop of these statements, more restrained assessments are being voiced in Europe: for instance, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius does not hold high hopes for the results of the Abu Dhabi round, reflecting a divergence of expectations among European capitals regarding how productive the working-level talks will turn out to be.
Context of Previous Rounds
Abu Dhabi will serve as a continuation of a series of contacts that, according to Witkoff, have already taken place in Kyiv, Oslo, and Saint Petersburg. In the UAE, it should be recalled, working meetings between representatives of Ukraine, the US, and Russia dedicated to the peace plan to end the war have also previously taken place. Thus, the November round in Abu Dhabi is positioned by Washington as a stage to consolidate achieved progress and move toward a sustainable peace treaty, although its final format and exact date remained a subject of coordination between the parties until the last moment.
