Abu Dhabi talks resume with US mediators citing narrowed gaps
Talks between Ukraine, the United States and Russia entered a second day in Abu Dhabi on 11 November 2026, according to Ukrainian chief negotiator Rustem Umerov. The format is trilateral, meaning all three parties are at the same negotiating table.
US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are mediating between Ukraine and Russia. Kushner told the delegates that the United States had "narrowed the gaps" between the two sides, according to Guardian live coverage.
Speaking in Copenhagen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the first day of trilateral talks as "constructive and quite substantive." He said he was "happy" with what he called "changes" in the approach of the US mediators.
Zelenskyy also said that Russia had claimed during the talks that it occupied half of Donbas, the industrial region of eastern Ukraine. He said Vladimir Putin "lives in a different reality" when it came to battlefield strength, and that the American side had confirmed Ukraine's own assessment of the front line.
Umerov said Ukraine will hold a separate meeting with its European partners after the trilateral session with the United States and Russia. The European meeting is planned rather than under way, and no outcome from it has been reported.
The talks are being held in the United Arab Emirates, where Abu Dhabi is the capital. Their stated aim, as the mediators have framed it, is to narrow differences between Kyiv and Moscow, though the sides have described the progress in different terms.
