Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he hopes upcoming United States-mediated talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi will lead to a three-way meeting of leaders that includes Russian President Vladimir Putin. Speaking in Berlin on Tuesday alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Zelenskyy said the adviser-level talks, set for November 10 and 11 , were part of a broader diplomatic push to end the war. Asked about the Abu Dhabi talks, Merz said it was “important that Russia finally and seriously engages in negotiations about a ceasefire and a subsequent peace agreement”.
Zelenskyy’s visit to Berlin was not announced in advance for security reasons. On landing, he said on X that diplomatic coordination, strengthening air defences and supporting Ukraine’s energy sector would top the agenda. US special envoy Steve Witkoff announced the new round of talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US on Monday.
He said the discussions would focus on “post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts, and next steps toward peace”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that a Russian delegation would attend, led as before by former Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, the state news agency TASS reported. The build-up to next week’s talks follows one of the most notable displays of cooperation between the warring sides since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Last week, human rights ombudsmen from Russia and Ukraine oversaw a local ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky to evacuate residents and deliver aid, in a mission brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump. Putin and Zelenskyy have had no direct contact since the invasion, and their representatives have held only a handful of rounds of talks. Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, reporting from Berlin, said there was a clear sense from Zelenskyy and Merz that the Abu Dhabi meeting “is a step forward, and there was an element of positivity about it”.
He said one journalist raised an important issue, saying “Europe and Ukraine are supposedly in lockstep with each other”, before asking, “why then are the Europeans not going to be in Abu Dhabi in those talks?” “There was not much of a reply there, but it’s clearly an issue, a thorny issue, perhaps, certainly for the Europeans,” Kane said. European governments have insisted on being involved in the negotiations but are unlikely to be at the table in Abu Dhabi. Instead, US envoys are due to meet representatives from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, NATO and the European Union in Brussels this week to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe’s post-war security architecture.
Zelenskyy has said Ukraine needs an additional 70 billion euros ($77.5bn) from European countries next year. Kane said successive German governments had pledged their full support to Ukraine, financing its efforts to fend off Russian attacks and supplying weapons and ammunition. But he said Merz knows that “the financial aspect of helping Ukraine has become a real issue, given that the economy here and in other European countries is particularly threatened right now”.
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