{"id":282664,"date":"2025-11-25T15:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T15:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/282664\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T15:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T15:09:08","slug":"us-brokers-ukraine-talks-in-abu-dhabi-as-trump-tries-to-push-through-deal-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/282664\/","title":{"rendered":"US brokers Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi as Trump tries to push through deal | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Discussions involving US, Russian and Ukrainian officials are taking place in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, the latest step in the Trump administration\u2019s attempts to push through a peace deal to end the conflict in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/ukraine\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The US army secretary, Dan Driscoll, met a Russian delegation on Monday night in the Gulf emirate, and talks continued into Tuesday. \u201cThe talks are going well and we remain optimistic. Secretary Driscoll is closely synchronised with the White House &#8230; as these talks progress,\u201d his spokesperson told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Ukraine\u2019s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, was also expected to participate in the talks, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/55a9f8cb-52fd-40f2-97ff-e0a13a17e5eb\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Financial Times reported<\/a>, though it was not clear whether there would be direct talks with Moscow\u2019s representatives or separate bilateral talks with Driscoll.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Nor was it immediately clear who was in the Russian delegation. \u201cI have nothing to say. We are following the media reports,\u201d Vladimir Putin\u2019s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told Russian state media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The meetings come after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/nov\/23\/trump-ukraine-zero-gratitude-peace-plan-international-talks\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">talks in Switzerland<\/a> on Sunday when US and Ukrainian officials reworked a draft US plan for ending the war in Ukraine. Moscow has not yet approved the latest version of the plan, and it is unlikely to accept many of the Ukrainian revisions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Russia\u2019s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Tuesday that any amended peace plan would have to reflect the \u201cspirit and letter\u201d of what Donald Trump and Putin discussed at their summit in Alaska in August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">European leaders are struggling to stay engaged in the process as US officials take the lead. Finland\u2019s president, Alexander Stubb, who has emerged as one of Trump\u2019s main interlocutors among European leaders in recent months, said on Tuesday that the coming days would be decisive in attempts to find a peace settlement, after speaking by phone to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cZelenskyy gave an overview of the latest situation. The future of Ukraine is for Ukraine to decide, and European security is for Europe to decide,\u201d Stubb <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/alexstubb\/status\/1993246450365481067\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrote<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Zelenskyy also spoke to the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Tuesday, while the French president, Emmanuel Macron, cautioned against a peace deal that would be a \u201ccapitulation\u201d for Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cWhat was put on the table gives us an idea of what would be acceptable for the Russians. Does that mean that it is what must be accepted by the Ukrainians and the Europeans? The answer is no,\u201d Macron said.<\/p>\n<p>A logistics centre of a supermarket chain was destroyed in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/nov\/25\/russia-strikes-kyiv-ukraine-us-brokered-peace-talks-abu-dhabi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the airstrikes on Kyiv<\/a> overnight.  Photograph: Danylo Antoniuk\/Ukrinform\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The US plan was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/nov\/19\/us-and-russian-officials-draft-new-peace-plan-based-on-capitulation-from-ukraine\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">originally made up of 28 points<\/a> and was based on discussions between Trump\u2019s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the Kremlin aide Kirill Dmitriev, reportedly with input from the head of Ukraine\u2019s security council, Rustem Umerov.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The proposal would have involved Ukraine ceding territory occupied by Russia and other areas it would have been expected to surrender voluntarily. It would also have put limits on the size of the Ukrainian army and given all participants in the conflict an amnesty for war crimes.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-14\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-rsfwa\">Sign up to This is Europe<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1xjndtj\">The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment<\/p>\n<p>Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/help\/privacy-policy\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/terms\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\" target=\"_blank\">Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-14\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Driscoll, who is a university friend of the US vice-president, JD Vance, and has recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/nov\/23\/dan-driscoll-trump-ukraine-russia-peace-deal\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">assumed a leading role<\/a> in Ukraine negotiations, travelled to Kyiv to brief Zelenskyy on the plan and demand he sign up to it within days. The pressure, combined with the leaking of the plan, took Ukrainian and European officials by surprise. Zelenskyy said on Friday that the country was facing one of the most difficult moments in its history and was being forced to choose between \u201closing our dignity or losing a key ally\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Driscoll then briefed Nato ambassadors on the plan in Kyiv. One person present said it had been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/nov\/22\/ukraine-zelenskyy-peace-deal-us-nato-meeting\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201ca nightmare meeting\u201d<\/a> and that European ambassadors had been shocked by the content and tone of Driscoll\u2019s delivery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Washington then rowed back on its ultimatums and said the 28-point plan was an opening point for discussion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThe sensitive issues, the most delicate points, I will discuss with President Trump,\u201d Zelenskyy said on Monday night, hailing progress in the plan. For all Driscoll\u2019s optimism,however, the Kremlin has shown little interest in compromising on its maximalist goals in the conflict.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">As peace talks stumble on, Moscow continues its nightly assaults on Ukrainian cities. Russian forces <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/nov\/25\/russia-strikes-kyiv-ukraine-us-brokered-peace-talks-abu-dhabi\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fired 22 missiles and 464 drones<\/a> at Ukraine overnight, primarily at targets in and around Kyiv, according to Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He said the Kremlin must not feel it was able to win the war while talks continued. \u201cWhat matters most now is that all partners move toward diplomacy together, through joint efforts. Pressure on Russia must deliver results,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Kyiv\u2019s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said seven people had been killed in the overnight attack on the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Discussions involving US, Russian and Ukrainian officials are taking place in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, the latest step&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-282664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}