Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi end without a breakthrough as US envoys head to Putin

Three-way peace talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States ended in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday without a breakthrough on a ceasefire. It was the first round in this format since February: about four and a half hours of talks on Tuesday and about two hours on Wednesday. Both sides said they had agreed on a new exchange of prisoners of war, with numbers still to be settled. The US envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are due to meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday and then brief President Volodymyr Zelensky in Dublin. The fighting did not pause: overnight, drones hit Russia’s Baltic port of Ust-Luga, starting a fire and injuring three workers, and the governor of the Leningrad region said 150 drones were shot down over the region.

Territory remains the main obstacle. Russia wants Ukraine to withdraw from the parts of the Donbas region it still holds, and Zelensky said in Dublin on Wednesday that giving up the Donbas was “impossible.” Negotiators on both sides said differences remain. Security guarantees for Ukraine were also discussed. Officials from France, Germany, the UK and Italy were in Abu Dhabi, but the Russian side said it had no contact with them. Washington wants European countries brought into the talks, and Europe has not yet decided who would represent it.

Why it matters

This is today’s highest-impact story because the war, now in its fifth year, shapes the security of all of Europe and weighs on energy and food prices worldwide, and this week brings a rapid run of meetings: Abu Dhabi, then Moscow, then Dublin. Nothing has been agreed beyond a prisoner exchange, and neither side has moved on territory. What to watch: what Putin tells the US envoys on Thursday, the size and timing of the prisoner exchange, and whether European leaders meeting in Dublin on Friday agree on who will speak for Europe.