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After months of talks to end the war, negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States appear to have narrowed their differences on a key point: the status of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. Volodymyr Zelensky has said the region will be a focus of the talks, while Vladimir Putin's foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, also suggested it is key to any progress at trilateral US-Russia-Ukraine talks that began today in Abu Dhabi.
Russia currently controls about 90% of the region's territory, as well as Ukraine's Crimea and parts of Zaporizhia, Kherson, Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that negotiations could continue tomorrow "if necessary," referring to the delegation representing Moscow in the United Arab Emirates. "All of them will be military, representatives of the Defense Ministry. This is a working group on security issues, these will be the first negotiations. You already know that they received instructions from the head of state last night and left there only this morning," he said.
Regarding the Kremlin's negotiating stance, Peskov reiterated that "Moscow's well-known position is that the Ukrainian army must leave the territory of Donbass," adding that "this is a very important condition."
Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, said that talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States would be "a step towards ending the war."
"The Donbas issue is fundamental. It will be discussed, as well as the way the three sides see it," he told reporters ahead of the historic meeting in the United Arab Emirates. Referring to the talks in Abu Dhabi, he said "it is a step, we hope for the end of the war, but different things can happen."
The Ukrainian president also said he discussed the Donbas issue with President Trump yesterday in Davos. According to him, the two presidents also “concluded security guarantees” for Ukraine and discussed additional air defense missiles that Ukraine needs to intercept Russian ballistic missiles. “I hope for a positive outcome,” he added.
Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters in Davos that the negotiations would be about "all of the land" and that Ukraine's borders in the eastern Donbas region were something he did not want to violate.
Russia currently holds most of the Luhansk region and large parts of the Donetsk region, but the slow progress has come at a significant cost. The Institute for the Study of War estimates that it will take Russian forces until August 2027 to capture the rest of Donetsk.
Zelensky has repeatedly said he will not cede Ukraine's Donbas to Russia, saying Moscow could use it as a springboard for future attacks. The US proposal for Ukraine's industrial heartland in the Donbas includes a demilitarized and free economic zone in exchange for security guarantees for Kiev. However, questions remain about whether Vladimir Putin will agree to the US plan.
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