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Delegaciones sentadas a una larga mesa de negociación en una sala formal con banderas genéricas de colores lisos
Mesa de negociación diplomática con delegaciones enfrentadas y banderas genéricas sin texto. · Imagen generada

Ukraine, Russia and the United States resume talks in Abu Dhabi

Representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the United States meet in Abu Dhabi in the first meeting of its kind in more than nine months, with Ukraine's…

--- The context --- Representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the United States meet this Tuesday in Abu Dhabi to negotiate a way out of the war, in the first meeting of its kind in more than nine months. The talks come as another winter of war approaches and after several failed attempts to reach an agreement, while Europe seeks to prevent Washington and Moscow from agreeing on a new security architecture without consulting the countries of the continent. --- The facts --- The President of the United States, Donald Trump, pushed the negotiations since his return to power, although the process lost prominence because of the war between the United States, Israel and Iran. The meeting will be led by the United States special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who will bring together the delegations of the two warring countries for the first time since February, when the negotiations took place in Geneva. The meeting will unfold amid differences over Ukraine's territorial future. In the run-up to the negotiations, Russia intensified its attacks on Ukrainian territory and carried out one of its deadliest bombings: authorities in Kiev reported that 55 people died in a frontline locality while they waited to receive humanitarian aid. Expectations for the outcome of the meeting are limited, and a senior Ukrainian official in Kiev said there are no particular expectations. --- The positions --- Trump anticipated that Kiev will have to accept modifications to its borders and argued that the process will end with a Ukraine in a slightly different form. Russia occupies wide areas of Ukrainian territory, but its troops did not manage to conquer the whole of the Donetsk region, and the Kremlin demands that Kiev hand over the parts of that territory it still controls, warning that otherwise it will continue its offensive. Ukraine, which resisted for more than four and a half years the invasion of a considerably larger army, ruled out that possibility, and President Volodymyr Zelensky repeatedly rejected any territorial withdrawal as a condition for reaching an agreement. Zelensky also argued that the intensification of the attacks is part of a Moscow strategy to pressure Ukraine's position during the negotiations. --- What remains unknown --- It remains unknown whether Abu Dhabi will produce any concrete progress on territory, what security guarantees will be put on the table, and whether the trilateral format, with the exclusive participation of Russia, Ukraine and the United States, will leave real room for Europe's voice. It is also unknown whether there will be face-to-face meetings between the leaders or broader ceasefire proposals, which Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly rejected. --- Unanswered questions --- Will Kiev accept any modification of its borders, or will it maintain its rejection of any territorial withdrawal? Will the meeting translate into concrete security guarantees for Ukraine and for Europe? Can the recent truce in the Kherson region become a model for a broader de-escalation? --- EPM analysis --- The Abu Dhabi table brings together the two disputes that blocked every previous attempt: the territory of Donetsk and who decides Europe's security. Europe fears that Washington and Moscow will agree on a new architecture without its participation, a fear Zelensky summed up by warning of a possible Yalta 2.0, in reference to the 1945 conference. At the same time, Kushner said on Monday that a peace agreement will require direct talks between Russia and Europe on the broader security agreements that affect them, and Ukraine's chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, confirmed that representatives of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy, together with officials from NATO and the European Union, will hold separate talks with the Kiev delegation in Abu Dhabi. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, Abu Dhabi matters for what it tries to prevent as much as for what it seeks to achieve: that Ukraine's peace and Europe's security be decided between two powers and behind the backs of those affected. Without Kiev there is no legitimate agreement over its territory, and without Europe there is no security architecture that will hold. The local truce in Kherson shows that de-escalation is possible step by step. The challenge is for the trilateral table to also listen to those who live under the bombing and to those who will share the consequences of any pact for decades.
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