Special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, following what Ukrainian negotiators described as one of the toughest rounds of peace talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.
Delegations from the United States, Ukraine and Russia gathered in Abu Dhabi for a second day of trilateral negotiations, with officials warning that difficult discussions remained ahead on several of the most contentious issues.
“These were very substantive. They were some pretty tough discussions after, I think, almost eight months of not being together,” Kushner told reporters afterward. “The conversations were very thorough. We covered all the relevant issues.”
The talks produced a proposal for one of the largest prisoner-of-war exchanges of the conflict. The precise number of detainees to be included is expected to be finalized during Kushner and Witkoff’s meeting with Putin in Moscow on Thursday.
The two U.S. envoys are also expected to urge Putin to expand the trilateral negotiations into a broader multilateral process that would include European negotiators.
Vladimir Medinsky, who leads Russia’s delegation, later confirmed that possibility.
“We’ve relayed to President Putin directly several times and to his team that the only way to get this done is to have them by our side,” Kushner said. “I think that they’re receptive to it.”
“Hopefully tomorrow in Moscow, Steve and I will be successful, and President Putin will give the blessing for that to occur.”
After meeting with Putin, Kushner and Witkoff are expected to travel to Dublin for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Wednesday’s negotiations also made progress on security guarantees for Ukraine and on creating a mechanism to prevent renewed escalation once the war ends.
“This was one of the toughest ones,” Ukrainian negotiator Davyd Arakhamia said of the session. “I think the Russians came with very, very strict directives. And it was very hard to actually soften the discussion.”
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Ukrainian negotiators said their Russian counterparts appeared to have little room to compromise on several of the peace talks’ most difficult sticking points.
Arakhamia expressed hope that Kushner and Witkoff could persuade Putin to ease Russia’s position at the negotiating table.
“No issues weren’t discussed,” Kushner said. “The territorial issues, which will be the hardest, but we do believe that, as we discuss these other issues, we’ll find a pathway to settle them all.”
Territory remains one of the central disputes between Moscow and Kyiv, particularly over control of the Donetsk region. Russia is estimated to control between 80% and 85% of the territory but has been unable to seize the remainder through military force.
Ukrainian officials fear that surrendering the Donetsk fortress belt would mean abandoning the country’s strongest defensive line, leaving Ukraine more exposed if Russia violates any future agreement and seeks to capture additional territory.
Zelensky described the first day of talks on Tuesday as “constructive and quite substantive.”
The Abu Dhabi meetings mark the first trilateral negotiations since a February initiative in Geneva failed to produce an agreement.
As the diplomacy continued, Russia intensified strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, apparently seeking to pressure Kyiv into submission ahead of what is expected to be a difficult winter.
“I think that every pre-winter time Russia tries to put the maximum pressure because winter [is] like where we are the most vulnerable,” Arakhamia acknowledged.
“This year we are more vulnerable because of the lack of interceptors,” he added. “Ukraine knows and learned … how to sustain the winter.”
