The Kremlin has played down the prospect of a deal President Donald Trump has teased about the Ukraine war. Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Kremlin had "no details" about Trump's announcement about a "big, beautiful agreement." It comes ahead of talks starting on November 10 in Abu Dhabi involving the U.S., Ukraine and Russia, the first such negotiations since February. However, Mark Temnycky, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank’s Eurasia Center, told Newsweek on Friday that "a breakthrough is unlikely." When contacted for comment, the White House referred Newsweek to an X post by Trump's envoy Jared Kushner which said that "all parties remain intensely engaged in preparing for substantive and productive negotiations." Trump met with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev on Thursday, when a White House event was hosted by First Lady Melania Trump marking a humanitarian operation in the frontline town of Oleshky.
Russian and Ukrainian officials also attended, although the U.S. president said he did not speak with Kyiv's delegation. "There's going to be an agreement," Trump told reporters, "and it's going to involve more than Ukraine. I could even say it might involve all of Europe." "It's going to be a big, beautiful agreement and everyone is going to be thrilled," he added without specifying further.
When asked about the deal on Friday, Peskov told reporters: "There are no details." Peskov further managed expectations over Trump's claims by saying that Russia had received no proposals from European countries on security guarantees for all parties. "As for any proposals from the Europeans, none have reached us, and we are not aware of any," he said, according to state news agency Tass. The U.S. president's comments prompted speculation ahead of next week's negotiations.
Abu Dhabi will host a trilateral meeting on November 10 and 11 between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. It follows months of deadlock over a settlement following negotiations involving Trump's special envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. Neither side has publicly shifted its position.
Russia insists Ukraine withdraw its forces from the parts of the Donetsk region Kyiv still controls, which is not acceptable for Ukraine. The Kremlin's terms are unchanged since 2024 when Putin called on Ukraine to withdraw from the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions that Russia claims but does not fully control. Ukraine has rejected these terms and has called for a ceasefire along the current frontline.
"Given these disputes, the talks in Abu Dhabi are more likely to yield incremental progress, such as an agreement on a new prisoner exchange," Temnycky from the Atlantic Council said. Kushner's X post noted the U.S. held productive talks in Brussels with representatives from Ukraine, NATO, and the EU. It also added the talks would focus on security guarantees for Ukraine and a broader European security architecture.
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