The first day of the second round of talks to end the war in Ukraine has ended in Abu Dhabi, Axios reported, BTA reported.
“The first day of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi with the mediation of the United States has ended“, wrote journalist from the American publication Barack Ravid on the social network “Ex“.
According to sources of “Axios“ “the negotiations will resume in the late hours of tomorrow“. The Ukrainian side described the negotiations as productive, Ravid also wrote.
However, the most contentious issues on territorial concessions remain unresolved, Reuters noted. Moscow wants Kiev to withdraw its troops from the entire Donetsk region, including the belt of heavily fortified cities considered one of Ukraine's strongest defense systems, as a prerequisite for an agreement.
Ukraine, for its part, insists that the conflict be frozen along the current front line and rejects a unilateral withdrawal of its forces.
The secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, Rustem Umerov, who leads the Ukrainian delegation, said that the delegations of Moscow and Kiev were welcomed in the UAE capital by US representatives. On the Washington side, special envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner arrived in Abu Dhabi.
Umerov added on social media that the planned two-day talks in Abu Dhabi began in the presence of the three delegations, after which the negotiators split into groups according to the topics discussed, and at the end they gathered together again.
The first round of trilateral talks was held on January 23 and 24 in Abu Dhabi.
Today's trilateral meeting was held after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had used the ceasefire brokered against energy facilities last year to stockpile ammunition, attacking Ukraine with a record number of ballistic missiles yesterday.