The Abu Dhabi talks on the Ukraine war are underway: US, Ukrainian and Russian delegations opened two days of US-brokered negotiations in the Emirati capital on Tuesday, November 10 — the first trilateral round since February — with the two questions that have blocked every previous round, territory and security guarantees, still publicly unresolved. Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a US negotiator, said at the outset of Tuesday's talks that the hope was "not only to discuss the bilateral issues between the countries, and how do we end the war and bring some good humanitarian relief, but it's also how do we create the right security relationships between Ukraine and Russia and Europe," CNN reported. The talks, scheduled to begin at around 0630 GMT, run through Wednesday, November 11. For the format's background, see Ukraine's security guarantees, explained and the Ukraine war, explained.
Who is at the table in Abu Dhabi?
The United States is represented by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Kushner, CNN and Reuters reported. Ukraine's delegation is led by Rustem Umerov, its foreign intelligence chief and top negotiator; Al Jazeera reported the team also includes David Arakhamia, head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's parliamentary group, his chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov, and Sergiy Kyslytsia. Russia's delegation is headed again by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky as chief negotiator and includes Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov for the first time, Reuters reported, alongside Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin and senior military officers — CNN, reporting the Russian state news agency TASS's account, named military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov and general staff member Yuri Zhigarlovsky.
Europe is present but not at the table. Russia has made clear it does not want the Europeans to take part in the negotiations, Reuters reported, and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Europe has its own channels of communication with Kyiv and Washington while reaffirming that the talks are "a trilateral negotiation — involving Russia and Ukraine — with the United States acting as a mediator," CNN reported. Representatives of the E4 group — the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy — as well as NATO and the European Commission are also in Abu Dhabi and met the Ukrainian and American delegations before Tuesday's trilateral session, CNN reported; Ukrainian delegates will meet separately to brief their European allies, officials in Kyiv told Reuters. Umerov said on Monday that Ukraine was "doing everything to ensure that Europe is a participant in the diplomatic process," Reuters reported. Witkoff said Tuesday that he and Kushner had met Ukrainian and European partners to continue "close coordination on efforts to end the war in Ukraine and establish the conditions for a durable peace, including support for robust security guarantees as part of any settlement," CNN reported.
What still divides Kyiv and Moscow?
Land, first of all — and the two sides' public positions did not move as the talks opened. Publicly, there has been no sign that President Vladimir Putin is willing to drop his insistence that Ukraine surrender the entire eastern region of Donbas before a peace deal can be struck, Reuters reported; CNN reported that Putin is still making the wider demands Kyiv has previously rejected, including Russian control over the Donbas, a reduction in the size of Ukraine's military and the abandonment of its NATO ambitions. Zelenskiy has staunchly refused to hand over land his forces have died defending, Reuters reported, and on the eve of the negotiations he said Ukraine's leverage was increasing because of its recent battlefield performance, including retaking some territory in Donetsk; he said Russia was suffering "record losses" — a claim Reuters noted is disputed by Moscow.
Against those public positions sits one attributed American assessment. US negotiators believe Zelenskiy and Putin may each be willing to compromise a little on territory, a US official told Reuters, and under the proposed deal Ukraine would get an end to the war, security guarantees and a roadmap to accession to the European Union. A senior Ukrainian official strongly denied that the government would consider any such concessions: territory could be discussed only at leaders' level, and only in the context of appropriate security guarantees for Ukraine, the official told Reuters. Both accounts come from unnamed officials speaking to the same wire, and both are stated here in full so readers can weigh them as what they are: one side's briefing against the other side's denial, with neither government yet committed in public.
What could these two days realistically produce?
Probably not a peace accord — that is the shared assessment of the analysts Al Jazeera consulted before the talks and of the format's own record. This is the fourth round of trilateral talks and all have ended without significant breakthrough, CNN reported; a round expected in March was postponed because of the war in Iran. The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said Monday she saw little sign that Russia was willing to negotiate in good faith, CNN reported. Olexiy Haran of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy told Al Jazeera that technical issues could plausibly be negotiated this week — grain supplies, a ceasefire in the Black Sea, an energy ceasefire and perhaps another prisoner exchange — while all the analysts Al Jazeera spoke to were certain no peace accord would emerge.
The energy file shows why even the technical track is fragile: a truce on striking energy targets announced by Trump last month quickly fell apart, Reuters reported, and Ukraine has since escalated its strikes on Russian oil refineries while Moscow has pounded Ukraine's electricity infrastructure and cities — the campaign behind Sunday's Kirishi refinery fire and the grid attacks tracked across this site's recent situation reports. Trump said last week that envoys had been discussing a broader security deal that could involve all of Europe, Reuters reported, prompting a backlash from European officials who said negotiations on European security need the direct involvement of the governments concerned. G7 foreign ministers were also expected to discuss Ukraine in Paris on Tuesday, with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha joining, Reuters reported. What Wednesday brings — a joint statement, a prisoner exchange, another round scheduled, or nothing — will be reported here against the statements of all three governments, not against the briefings that preceded it.
Sources: Reuters (10 November 2026, read in full on reuters.com); CNN (9–10 November 2026, read in full on cnn.com); Al Jazeera (9 November 2026, read in full via the verbatim carrier 234radio.com); Reuters oil report (10 November 2026, read in full via the rostered carrier 965wtou.com). The territory-flexibility assessment is a single US official's account given to Reuters and is published as such, alongside the senior Ukrainian official's denial carried in the same wire; both officials are unnamed in the Reuters report; no agreement, concession or ceasefire had been announced when this article was published. Market figures are snapshots at the times stamped in the box, are not investment advice, and no market move is attributed to a cause beyond what the cited source itself reported.
