Russia, Ukraine meet for US-backed talks in Abu Dhabi
· RTE.ieRussian and Ukrainian officials are to meet for two days of US-brokered talks - their first since February - after President Donald Trump suggested last week that a broad peace deal was possible in their four-and-a-half-year war and could incorporate Europe's security.
European powers, including France, Germany and the European Commission, will send officials to the talks in Abu Dhabi, but Russia has made it clear it does not want the Europeans to take part in negotiations.
Instead, Ukrainian delegates will meet separately to brief their European allies on the progress of the discussions, which are scheduled to begin at around 6.30am Irish time, officials in Kyiv said.
"We are doing everything to ensure that Europe is a participant in the diplomatic process," the head of the Ukrainian delegation Rustem Umerov said.
Headed again by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky as chief negotiator, Russia's delegation will include Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov for the first time and senior military officer Yuri Zhigarlovsky.
After meeting privately with Russian President Vladimir Putin's envoy last week at the White House, Mr Trump predicted that a peace deal could emerge soon.
Mr Trump has frequently said an agreement to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two was close, without a deal emerging.
However, negotiations have picked up again in recent weeks after months in which Washington's attention was focused on the war in Iran.
Publicly, there has been no sign that Mr Putin is willing to drop his insistence that Ukraine surrender the entire eastern region of Donbas before a peace deal can be struck.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has staunchly refused to hand over land that his forces have died defending. Russian front-line advances have slowed to a virtual halt this year.
On the eve of the negotiations, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine's leverage in the talks was increasing as a result of its recent battlefield performance, which has included retaking some territory in Donetsk, a coal-mining area of the Donbas.
"Ukrainian forces are currently genuinely strengthening Ukraine's negotiating position," Zelensky said in his nightly video address yesterday.
He said Russia was suffering "record losses" - a claim disputed by Moscow - and urged Washington to convince the Kremlin to end the war.
US negotiators believe that Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin may be willing to strike a compromise on the vital question of territory, each ceding a little, a US official told Reuters.
Under the proposed deal, Ukraine would get an end to the war, security guarantees and a roadmap to accession to the EU.
A senior Ukrainian official strongly denied that the government would consider any such concessions.
The issue of territory could be discussed only at a leaders' level and only in the context of appropriate security guarantees for Ukraine, the official said.
Security deal
A truce on striking energy targets announced by Mr Trump last month quickly fell apart.
Ukraine has escalated its strikes on Russian oil refineries in recent weeks, and Moscow has pounded Ukraine's electricity infrastructure and cities.
Mr Trump said last week that envoys had been discussing a broader security deal that could involve all of Europe, without providing details.
"It's going to be a big agreement, and it's going to involve more than Ukraine ... I could even say it might involve all of Europe," Mr Trump said.
His comments prompted a backlash from some European officials, who said that any negotiations on European security needed direct involvement by relevant governments, and that Russia should not be involved in setting European security policy.
Before launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia demanded the withdrawal of NATO forces from countries that joined the alliance after 1997, which the alliance rejected.
American officials, including Mr Trump's son-in-law and Ukraine special envoy Jared Kushner, held talks in Brussels last week with NATO, the European Union and major European powers, and they discussed security guarantees.
G7 foreign ministers are also expected to discuss Ukraine, on the second day of their gathering in Paris, and Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha will join the talks.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said before departing for France on Sunday that there had been "advances" in what Europe's post-conflict security architecture could look like.
Mr Zelensky has voiced hope that a victory by Democrats in last week's US midterm elections could increase support for Ukraine from Washington.
Since Mr Trump took office, the US has slashed direct aid to Kyiv, while Europe has become the main foreign funder of Ukraine's budget and military purchases.