Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Ukrainian and Russian negotiators opened a second round of U.S.-brokered talks on Wednesday in a bid to revive efforts to end the war, even as new battlefield accusations highlighted deep divisions.
Second round begins in trilateral format
The two-day trilateral meetings involve Ukraine, the United States, and Russia, according to Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s top negotiator, who said the talks began in Abu Dhabi.
Umerov said teams would also meet in separate groups to discuss specific negotiation tracks and then hold a joint meeting to synchronise positions.
Accusations amid talks
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had exploited a U.S.-backed energy truce last week to stockpile munitions and that Ukraine faced a record number of ballistic missile attacks on Tuesday.
Key sticking points
Over the past year, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has pushed Kyiv and Moscow to find a compromise to end the conflict triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but the two sides remain far apart on core issues.
Among the most sensitive issues are Moscow’s demands that Kyiv give up land it still controls and the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is in a Russian-occupied area.
Moscow wants Kyiv to pull its troops out of all of the eastern Donetsk region, including heavily fortified cities regarded as among Ukraine’s strongest defences, as a precondition for any deal.
Ukraine has said the conflict should be frozen along the current front line and has rejected any unilateral pullback of its forces.
Territorial control and battlefield assessments
Russia currently occupies about 20% of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region seized before the 2022 invasion.
Military analysts have said Russian forces have gained about 1.5% of Ukrainian territory since the start of 2024.
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