The two-day talks between Russia and Ukraine that concluded yesterday in Abu Dhabi (UAE) with US mediation are the leading topic in the world press today.
United Kingdom
Peace talks on the war in Ukraine ended with an agreement on an exchange of prisoners of war between the Ukrainian and Russian sides, but without a breakthrough, the British newspaper “Financial Times” reports. The discussions, involving Russia, Ukraine and the US, focused on post-war security guarantees, the newspaper writes, noting that according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 1,500 people from each side could be exchanged.
“The Russians came with very, very strict instructions and it was difficult to soften the tone of the discussion,” said David Arakhamia, one of the Ukrainian negotiators, after the talks, quoted by the “Financial Times”. “But the way the US representatives structured the conversation, focusing on the post-war picture for both sides, in my opinion opened up the dialogue and we began working more productively,” he added. Arakhamia said there was “good momentum for finding a solution before the New Year”.
Washington’s special envoy Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, said that progress had been made during the two days of talks on post-war security guarantees for Ukraine, but added that no agreement could be reached until the two sides resolved their territorial dispute, the “Financial Times” reports.
The British newspaper stresses that despite US optimism about a possible peace agreement, Russia did not show in Abu Dhabi that it was ready to compromise on any of the demands of its president, Vladimir Putin, in order to end its large-scale war in Ukraine. Vladimir Medinsky, Moscow’s chief negotiator, said that Russia would retain every inch of land “one way or another”.
Putin’s demands include Ukraine withdrawing from the section of the front line in Donbas that it controls, as well as from two other regions partially occupied by Russia. The Russian president’s insistence on seizing more Ukrainian territory, even as his army’s progress on the battlefield has slowed, remains one of the main obstacles, the British newspaper emphasises. Ukraine rejected Putin’s demands, which Kyiv says amount to capitulation.
Europe is concerned about Moscow’s attempts to reshape the continent’s security architecture, including by effectively imposing a ban on admitting new NATO members and forcing the alliance to withdraw the troops and military equipment deployed on its eastern flank, the “Financial Times” stresses. Russia refused to meet with EU and NATO envoys in Abu Dhabi, who held talks only with the US and Ukrainian delegations, the newspaper adds.
The newspaper notes that yesterday Zelensky welcomed signals from the US that Washington would be ready to accept European participation in future peace talks. He added that he needed “specific answers” regarding Ukraine’s security guarantees from Kushner and Trump’s other special envoy, Steve Witkoff.
On the other hand, the Ukrainian president said there could be a chance for a breakthrough in talks to end the war as early as this year after arriving in Ireland following the negotiations in Abu Dhabi, the British newspaper “The Guardian” writes.
“There really is such a possibility now, when all the participants currently involved in the negotiating process genuinely want to achieve a result before 2027,” Zelensky said, quoted by “The Guardian”. He is expected to meet with US President’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner after they return from a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
“It is important that the Americans flew to Putin with specific proposals,” Zelensky stressed. “I would very much like them to return to Dublin with specific results,” he said, quoted by “The Guardian”. Zelensky added that Ukraine hoped for specific results regarding the end of the war as early as this year, but that much would depend on the US approach to Moscow.
According to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the talks in Abu Dhabi showed that the positions of the US, Ukraine and Europe were “fully coordinated and united”, the British newspaper notes. Rutte noted that it was now up to Russia to show that it was “ready to play by the rules”.
US
The US is urging Russia to include Europe in the talks on Ukraine, is the leading emphasis of the American newspaper “The New York Times” in its coverage of the negotiations in Abu Dhabi. After the latest round of talks, President Donald Trump’s envoys said they would travel to Moscow, while the Kremlin insisted on discussing Europe’s security architecture, the newspaper reports.
In the first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine after a nine-month interruption, the negotiators agreed on a large-scale exchange of prisoners of war, as has happened after almost every round of talks so far, but made little progress on the key issues dividing them, including the plan for post-war security in the region, another American newspaper, “The Washington Post”, notes.
According to the newspaper’s assessment, the two-day talks in Abu Dhabi revealed a widening gap between the American and European visions of how to approach Russia in the negotiations. Moscow, in turn, welcomed President Donald Trump’s envoys’ proposal to begin discussing what the post-war security architecture might look like—one of the Kremlin’s longstanding demands, “The Washington Post” highlights. Kyiv and its European allies, however, are concerned about the prospect of a European security order designed according to a Russian blueprint.
Both Russia and Ukraine want to know “what their security system will look like” if the war ends, American envoy Jared Kushner said yesterday, quoted by “The Washington Post”. “We told the Russians that obviously they have their desires and their concerns and we were able to discuss them during this meeting,” he said. “But we also told them that they need to offer additional de-escalation measures and other proposals if they want Europe to accept them in a favourable way. The reality is that there is no trust between the parties at the moment,” the statement by Trump’s son-in-law, cited by the American newspaper, continues.
Kushner’s proposal uses the now-defunct NATO-Russia Council as a model to give Moscow a voice in consultations on the continent’s security issues, a long-standing goal of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “The Washington Post” notes, recalling warnings by some European officials that this approach risks legitimising the thesis Putin has long defended—that the full-scale invasion was necessary because Russia’s security was threatened by NATO’s growing role in Ukraine.
European representatives, concerned that the US could discuss the security of the continent without their participation, sent a team of senior officials to Abu Dhabi, but they were not included in the trilateral talks, the American newspaper reported.
Kushner, for his part, said that one of the goals of his visit to Moscow today with Witkoff was “to see if we can include the Europeans” in future negotiations. According to him, NATO and the European Union would be an “integral part” of the post-war security structure, but “obviously something is not working, which is why we are now in the fifth year of the longest war Europe has seen in a very long time”, “The Washington Post” points out.
Kushner described the talks in Abu Dhabi as difficult and exhausting, but nevertheless productive. Russia has long sought a greater role in shaping Europe’s security architecture. In 2021, just a few months before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it presented a list of demands to the West aimed at radically rewriting the modern European security system, “The Washington Post” recalls.
The two documents, one addressed to Washington and the other to NATO, were presented at a meeting of the now-defunct NATO-Russia Council and included a ban on further NATO expansion eastward and a return to the situation before 1997, before the Alliance admitted new states from the former Eastern Bloc, including Poland. These demands were rejected by the West as unacceptable, and weeks later Russia sent troops into Ukraine, despite assurances from senior Russian officials that it had no intention of attacking its neighbouring country, the newspaper reports.
There are no signs that Russia has abandoned these demands, which summarise claims accumulated over the years following the collapse of the USSR and the loss of the influence with which Moscow determined the direction of development of neighbouring states, the newspaper assesses.
Members of the Russian delegation continue to publicly repeat that no agreement will be acceptable to Russia unless these “root causes” are addressed—a longstanding euphemism for demands that foreign troops and NATO peacekeeping forces never set foot in Ukraine, that Kyiv abandon its ambition to join the alliance, limit its military forces and withdraw its troops from the eastern Ukrainian regions that Putin declared by law to be “new territories”, even though Russian forces failed to seize them entirely by military means, “The Washington Post” summarises.
Kyiv has repeatedly stated that these demands are unacceptable and would give Russia the opportunity to continue its aggression, leaving Ukraine unable to resist a future attack, the American newspaper recalls.
France
The talks in Abu Dhabi were thwarted by Russia’s intransigent position, is the view of the French newspaper “Le Figaro”. It is hardly surprising that, apart from the welcome agreement on an exchange of prisoners of war, the talks in Abu Dhabi ended without any significant result, the newspaper notes.
Of course, there were visible reasons to believe in success, as the timing seemed favourable, “Le Figaro” points out. Trump has always been a man in a hurry, but after losing the election, with the inauguration of a Democratic Congress approaching in January, he needs a quick diplomatic success more than ever, the newspaper believes.
The same applies to his envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, real estate investors who have become the somewhat unlikely Chip and Dale of American diplomacy and who next year could themselves come under pressure because of potential conflicts of interest, the newspaper notes.
Another French publication, “Le Monde”, notes that Kyrylo Budanov, head of the office of Ukrainian President Zelensky, appeared almost amused when he came face to face with Russian envoys. “Budanov appeared to recognise yet another provocation by Vladimir Putin,” “Le Monde” writes.
During the two-day talks aimed at making progress towards peace between Russia and Ukraine, Budanov met with Dmitry Minaev, head of counterintelligence at Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), and another member of the Russian delegation, the French newspaper notes. According to Ukrainian intelligence, Minaev organised an attempt to assassinate Budanov in 2019, “Le Monde” recalls.