The Abu Dhabi meetings, scheduled for November 10–11, were preceded by a coordinated local ceasefire that evacuated hundreds of civilians under the joint supervision of Dmytro Lubinets and Yana Lantratova. Both nations endorsed a White House narrative highlighting Melania Trump's role as an intermediary, which Moscow utilized to exploit tensions between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Russia further signaled its entrenched position by appointing Vladimir Medinsky, who led previous delegations in 2022 and 2025, to head the talks. Kyiv firmly rejects Moscow's enduring demand for complete Ukrainian capitulation.
Key points
Moscow is using humanitarian cooperation and diplomatic optics to gain favor with Donald…: Moscow is using humanitarian cooperation and diplomatic optics to gain favor with Donald Trump while portraying Ukraine as the true barrier to peace.
Russian leadership continues to insist on Ukraine's surrender as the only acceptable outc…: Russian leadership continues to insist on Ukraine's surrender as the only acceptable outcome, which Kyiv consistently refuses to accept.
Vladimir Putin believes Russia can ultimately outlast Western backing for Ukraine to purs…: Vladimir Putin believes Russia can ultimately outlast Western backing for Ukraine to pursue military aggression under more favorable conditions.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
The humanitarian breakthrough in Oleshky has not changed Moscow’s calculations. Putin believes he can outlast Western support for Ukraine.
As the Russian-Ukrainian war, which long ago entered a phase of attrition, grinds on, Russia, Ukraine and the United States began a new round of US-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, on November 10. The talks are scheduled to continue on November 11.
The talks follow a successful humanitarian operation in Oleshky, a southern Ukrainian town that has been occupied by Russian forces since 2022.
Starting in December 2025, Oleshky experienced a food crisis that worsened dramatically in the summer of this year. Over the years under Russian occupation, its population declined from 25,000 to 2,000 people, and the food crisis threatened the survival of those who remained. In the summer, however, Ukrainian and Russian intelligence services agreed to work on a local ceasefire in order to evacuate Oleshky’s inhabitants – if they wanted to leave – either to Ukraine or to Russia.
The humanitarian mission went surprisingly smoothly. Both sides stood by the…
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Bilateral talks are underway to establish shared operational guidelines as Berlin develops ground-launched weapons capable of reaching deep into Russian territory. Paris worries that Moscow could misread such strikes as existential threats backed by French nuclear guarantees. Establishing a unified signaling doctrine aims to curb accidental escalation while European nations independently reinforce their collective deterrence posture.
Two days of American-mediated discussions in Abu Dhabi yielded the first direct engagement between both nations in nine months. Brokered in part by Jared Kushner, the diplomatic breakthrough addresses pressing humanitarian concerns even as fierce military exchanges persist. U.S. representatives are now preparing to travel directly to both capitals to continue high-level engagements with top leadership.