Ukrainian Head of State Vladimir Zelensky announced the first trilateral meeting in the UAE in the Ukraine-Russia-US format after negotiations with US President Donald Trump on January 22 in Davos. At the same time, he expressed hope that “the Emirates know about this.”
“Sometimes we get such surprises from the American side,” the president added.
He noted that Russians “must be ready for compromises” – “not only Ukraine.”
The Russian Federation itself has not yet confirmed its participation in the meeting, a senior American official told FT. The Ukrainian and American sides are awaiting a response from Moscow, the Ukrainian OP clarified in a media commentary.
US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and the head of the White House's son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected to discuss this idea with illegitimate Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on January 22.
Witkoff said that after the meeting with Putin, he and Kushner will go straight to Abu Dhabi.
As a source told the FT, this week the Russian Federation informed the United States that Putin is open to holding parallel negotiations with Ukraine, in which mediators will travel between delegations, but Moscow did not agree to a trilateral format of negotiations.
If Putin accepts the US proposal, this meeting will be the first since Trump returned to the White House when American officials will simultaneously sit down at the negotiating table with Russian and Ukrainian representatives, the media emphasized.
The US and Ukrainian delegations discussed the possibility of offering Russia a limited ceasefire, in which the aggressor country would stop attacks on Ukrainian energy in exchange for Kiev stopping attacks on Russian refineries and “shadow fleet” tankers, two FT sources informed.
Negotiations are at an early stage, but Putin is unlikely to agree to such a proposal, since he considers pressure on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure an important lever of influence, the media source added.
Kyiv is also treating the energy truce with caution. Long-range drones have successfully hit Russian oil and gas facilities, and more recently oil tankers in the Black and Mediterranean Seas, which fuel the Kremlin’s war machine, the FT pointed out.
Context
Trump and Zelensky held a meeting January 22 on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
We passed there consultations between the Ukrainian and American delegations on the future security architecture and long-term economic development of Ukraine.
Also in Davos, the US delegation held negotiations with representatives of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation, calling it “very positive.”
On January 22, Vitkoff said that negotiations on ending the Russian war against Ukraine “come to an end.” “And I’m an optimist,” he noted.
Ukraine will be represented by the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov, the head of the OP Kirill Budanov, his first deputy head Sergei Kislitsa, the head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction David Arakhamia and the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andrei Gnatov, Zelensky said on January 22.
