Source : Perth Now news
Russian and Ukrainian officials have met in Abu Dhabi for their first peace talks since February as US President Donald Trump’s envoys launched a new push to end the war in Ukraine.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the US-brokered meeting in the capital of the United Arab Emirates as very productive, without giving details.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the four-hour talks “constructive and quite substantive,” and said they had included humanitarian and security issues.
“The release of prisoners (of war) is a priority. They spoke in detail about the substance of security guarantees for Ukraine and the foundations for ensuring these guarantees function over the long term,” he posted on X.
“Real tools are needed to block any recurrence of the war. The need for de-escalation steps was also touched upon.”
Despite public optimism from Trump, the warring sides remain far apart on terms for a possible settlement, more than four and a half years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russian forces control about a fifth of Ukraine but territory is not the only issue at stake.
Others include future security guarantees, which both sides say they need, and Russian demands that Ukraine adopt neutral status and not join the NATO military alliance.
There was no immediate comment from Russia on what was discussed.
A second day of negotiations was scheduled for Wednesday.
The meeting followed US contacts with both sides in recent weeks that Trump’s representative Jared Kushner said had narrowed gaps between their positions.
Addressing delegates at the start of the meeting, he said the United States had some good ideas on how to make progress.
Last week Trump said the Ukraine war was close to being settled in a “big beautiful agreement” that might involve the security of all of Europe but he has frequently predicted breakthroughs that have not materialised.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov underlined his country’s preference for negotiating a broad European security framework before tackling the specifics of the war.
“The idea of defining clear parameters for a future security architecture, and only then moving on to resolving the actual Russia-Ukraine conflict, is absolutely reasonable,” he said in Moscow.
Before the main meeting on Tuesday, the Ukrainian representatives met separately with European, NATO and European Union representatives and the two US envoys, Kushner and Steve Witkoff.
France said there could be no lasting peace in Ukraine without addressing European security and that this required the Europeans’ involvement.
Rubio, speaking in Paris, said the US aimed to expand the trilateral talks to include Europe at some point.
“In the days to come, perhaps we can make some progress on including them in that front,” he said.
with AP
