Some progress, little trust: Abu Dhabi talks end day two

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reported some progress in two days of peace talks in Abu Dhabi that ended on Wednesday, but US mediators said there was a lack of trust between the warring sides and differences remained on major issues, including territory.

In their first peace talks for nine months, Russia and Ukraine agreed to a major release of prisoners of war, but there was little else in the way of concrete announcements after the US-brokered meetings.

US envoy Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law, said mediators were appealing to each side's interests to end Europe's biggest conflict since World War Two and he expressed confidence they would find a pathway to peace.

Despite public optimism from Trump, there has been no sign of major compromises on the main issues after more than 4-1/2 years of war since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kyiv has strongly rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin's demands to surrender the whole of the eastern region of Donbas in return for peace. With talks deadlocked on land, US mediators have tried to steer talks towards postwar security guarantees and reconstruction.

"The reality is there is no trust right now between the sides and that is to be expected after a conflict like this," Kushner said, adding that the talks in the capital of the United Arab Emirates had touched on territorial issues and that these would be the hardest to resolve.

"Some areas we see places where we can find compromises, others (where) we need to have more discussions, but I think this was a good first step," he said.

Kushner said he and fellow US envoy Steve Witkoff would travel to Moscow on Thursday for talks with Putin at which they would raise the question of broadening the talks to include European partners, who he said must be at the table.

Existing security architecture in Europe could form the basis for an agreement, Kushner said, without providing details.

As the Trump administration has scaled back its direct support to Ukraine, Europe has become the leading provider of finance and military support to Kyiv.

After Thursday's meetings in Moscow, Kushner and Witkoff will fly to Ireland for talks with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is due to attend a meeting of European leaders there.

ATTACKS CONTINUE

Russia and Ukraine accused each other of launching attacks overnight, despite the Abu Dhabi peace talks.

Russia struck six large electricity substations in central Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said, and an attack on a busy market in the Odesa region killed three people. One person was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in Russia's Belgorod region, local authorities there said.

Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said the talks had been tough, with Russia's delegation arriving with "strict directives", but the conversations provided "good momentum" towards reaching a solution before the end of the year. He didn't provide further details.

Although European officials and NATO representatives met US and Ukrainian envoys in Abu Dhabi, Russia's delegation refused to meet them. Arakhamia said future peace talks must be multilateral and include Europe at the table.

Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, told Russian state TV he thought a peace deal was closer after the talks but "a great deal depends on Ukraine, on the US stance, and on whether Europe comes to its senses". Russia has repeatedly criticised European military support for Ukraine.

Reaffirming Moscow's long-standing demands, Medinsky told Russian state news agency TASS that "every inch" of Russian land would be returned to Russia — an apparent reference to Putin's insistence that Ukraine surrender all of the Donbas.

Ukraine had hoped the Abu Dhabi talks would make progress towards a ceasefire on Black Sea grain shipments as a means of de-escalation, but Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, on a visit to Turkey, said Kyiv was still awaiting a Russian response.

FRONT LINE STATIC

Russian forces control about a fifth of Ukraine, much of it captured before the 2022 invasion, and their progress on the battlefield has slowed this year.

With the front line largely static, Moscow has been pounding Ukrainian cities and energy sites, while Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian oil refineries and other infrastructure.

Russian officials are calling for a broad agreement on European security architecture to be reached before tackling the specifics of the war.

Before its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia demanded the withdrawal of NATO forces from countries that joined the alliance after 1997, which the alliance rejected.

At a security conference in Moscow on Wednesday, a senior Russian diplomat suggested Moscow could sign non-aggression pacts with individual NATO member states as part of a new security arrangement.

European officials say wider security talks should only come after a ceasefire, and that Russia should not be allowed to influence Europe's security arrangements or be rewarded for starting the war.

Trump said last week the war was close to being settled in a "big beautiful agreement" that could include security guarantees for Europe. He has frequently predicted breakthroughs that have not materialised.