Zelenskyy says Donbas issue 'key' during upcoming Russia-Ukraine-US talks in Abu Dhabi

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday said that the issue of the Donbas region will be “key” during the trilateral talks in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday.

“The issue of Donbas is key. It will be discussed and the modalities will be discussed, as the three parties see it, in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow,” Zelenskyy told journalists, according to state news agency Ukrinform.

Zelenskyy’s comments come ahead of two days of trilateral talks between Russian, Ukrainian, and US negotiators in the Emirati capital, set to begin later Friday.

The trilateral talks were first announced by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday morning, who said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, that he and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would head to Abu Dhabi, where he said working groups would meet, following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin later that evening.

He further said that “a lot of progress” had been made in Russia-Ukraine peace talks, and that negotiations were down to one last issue.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said during a session at the WEF that Russia, Ukraine, and the US will hold a trilateral meeting at the technical level in the UAE for the first time.

“(The) American team will go to Moscow today. They waited for our meeting with President Trump. And now they will go, and my team will meet (the) American team. And I think it will be the first trilateral meeting in (the) Emirates. It will be tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Yes, it will be two days (of) meetings,” Zelenskyy said.

Following talks between Putin and the US envoys in Moscow, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists that they agreed to hold the first meeting of a trilateral working group on security matters in Abu Dhabi, and that it will also serve as a venue for a meeting of the heads of a bilateral working group on economic matters.

“We have already formed our negotiating team on security matters, and it will be on its way to the UAE in a matter of hours,” Ushakov said, noting the delegation will be led by Igor Kostyukov, the head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of Russia's Armed Forces.

He added that the Russian side reaffirmed its position that there is “no hope of achieving a long-term settlement” in Ukraine without resolving territorial issues based on the formula agreed upon during the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska in August last year.