UPDATE - Zelenskyy says US, Russia, Ukraine to hold first trilateral meeting in UAE on Friday and Saturday

ADDS US VICE PRESIDENT'S REMARKS

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that the first tripartite meeting between the US, Russia, and Ukraine will take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Friday and Saturday.

Speaking at a plenary session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday, Zelenskyy said US representatives waited to see how his meeting with US President Donald Trump concluded.

"Now they are headed to Moscow, and my team will talk to the US representatives. This will be the first tripartite meeting in the Emirates, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. I hope the UAE is aware, because the Americans generally love surprising everyone, but this meeting should take place," he said.

Regarding his talks with Trump, Zelenskyy said the meeting “was good” and that documents on ending the war are nearly finalized.

"I really hope that the Russians will be ready for compromises, because it is not only the Ukrainian side that should be ready for compromises," he added.

Zelenskyy did not specify further details, such as timing or the level of delegations, but said: "Perhaps the meeting won't happen right away, perhaps we’ll have to wait. But tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, we have scheduled tripartite meetings. This is better than the complete lack of dialogue."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed earlier in the day that President Vladimir Putin plans to meet the US representatives on Thursday evening.

A White House official confirmed to Anadolu on condition of anonymity that the talks would be taking place in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday.

- 'We've made a lot of progress'

Separately, US envoy Steve Witkoff said he and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, will travel to Moscow on Thursday evening and then proceed directly to Abu Dhabi, where working group meetings are scheduled.

US Vice President JD Vance welcomed the announcement of planned trilateral talks, while cautioning that a breakthrough peace agreement may not be imminent.

After speaking at an industrial facility in the US state Ohio, Vance took questions from the press.

"The fact that they're sitting down and talking is progress, and I think we've made a lot of progress here," Vance said in response to a question by Anadolu on the upcoming talks.

He emphasized that the Trump administration would continue diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, while acknowledging setbacks in previous negotiations.

"We're going to keep on working on it. I've been disappointed in the past where I thought we were close to a peace deal, so I'm not going to predict that anything is going to happen in the next couple of weeks," he said, adding that the goal remains ending the killings.

* Michael Hernandez and Diyar Guldogan contributed to this report from Washington, DC