Donald Trump said he would send special envoy Steve Witkoff to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss developing proposals to end the Ukraine war, but there was little sign of progress on key issues despite White House optimism.
The US President said the talks left “only a few points of disagreement” but yielded no breakthrough on issues of territorial control and security guarantees and he downplayed hopes for an immediate peace summit.
“I look forward to meeting with President Zelensky and President Putin soon, but only when an agreement to end this war is final or in its final stages,” Trump wrote on his Truth social platform following a day of talks between US, Russian and Ukrainian officials in Abu Dhabi.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would like to meet with Donald Trump as soon as possible to discuss the final details of the agreement. Ukrainian officials said they were close to agreeing the outline of an agreement, but some details could only be discussed at the presidential level.
However, Trump said he would send US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to Ukraine for further discussions. The official, who has suddenly taken a central role in peace talks, is expected to arrive in Kiev later this week, according to Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrey Yermak.
In his nightly address, Zelensky said Ukrainian officials were working “on the text of the document” prepared at the previous round of talks in Geneva and added that “the principles of this document can be developed into deeper agreements”.
But there was no suggestion that the revised US-Ukraine deal discussed in Geneva on Sunday would be something Russia would agree to.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said any revised peace plan would have to reflect “the spirit and letter” of what Donald Trump and Putin discussed at their summit in Alaska in August, after Trump came to the conclusion that Ukraine should make territorial concessions to Russia.
Meanwhile Moscow continued its nightly attacks on Ukrainian cities. The Russian military fired 22 missiles and 464 drones into Ukraine on Tuesday night, mainly at targets in and around Kiev. Seven people were killed.
Earlier, senior Ukrainian officials had said they expected Zelensky to meet with Trump during this week’s US Thanksgiving holiday to discuss the revised agreement and talk directly about the region. Russia continues to demand that Ukraine cede the 30% of Donetsk province that it has not captured, which Ukraine has called unacceptable.
A Ukrainian official told AFP that the new US-Ukraine proposal was “much better”. The revised term sheet increased the proposed limit of the country’s future military forces from 600,000 to 800,000 – closer to the current number of personnel on active service.
“Our delegation reached a consensus on the basic terms of the agreement discussed in Geneva,” Ukraine’s Security Council secretary Rustam Umerov wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
“We look forward to convening the visit of the President of Ukraine to the United States at the earliest appropriate date in November to complete the final steps and reach an agreement with President Trump.”
Zelensky said Tuesday evening that any negotiations with Trump must include European allies, and told 40 allies at a virtual meeting of a coalition of countries willing to contribute to a post-war peacekeeping force that “Europe must be included in security decisions about Europe.”
According to Keir Starmer, the issue of territorial concessions was not included in the US–Ukraine agreement. “My understanding is that this is not a new deal, this is Ukraine confirming that they are happy with the draft put forward in Geneva yesterday, which of course does not cover the question of territory,” Britain’s prime minister told parliament on Tuesday.
On Monday night, Driscoll met with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi and talks continued on Tuesday. “Negotiations are going well and we remain optimistic. Secretary Driscoll is coordinating closely with the White House … as negotiations move forward,” his spokesman told Reuters.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov was also expected to attend the Abu Dhabi talks, the Financial Times reported, although it was unclear whether there would be direct talks with Moscow representatives or separate bilateral talks with Driscoll.
Nor was it immediately clear who was in the Russian delegation. “I have nothing to say. We are following media reports,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media.
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European leaders are struggling to stay involved in the process as US officials lead it. Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, who has emerged as one of Trump’s main negotiators among European leaders in recent months, said after speaking by phone with Zelensky and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Tuesday that the coming days would be decisive in efforts to find a peace solution.
“Zelensky gave an overview of the latest situation. Ukraine’s future is for Ukraine to decide, and European security is for Europe to decide,” Stubb wrote on X.
Zelensky also spoke with Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron warned against a peace deal that would amount to a “surrender” for Ukraine.
“What was put on the table gives us an idea of what would be acceptable to the Russians. Does that mean Ukrainians and Europeans have to accept it? The answer is no,” Macron said.
The US plan was originally made up of 28 points and was based on discussions between Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Kremlin aide Kirill Dmitriev, reportedly with input from the head of Ukraine’s Security Council, Rustam Umerov.
This proposal would involve Ukraine relinquishing Russian-occupied territory and other areas that it would be expected to surrender voluntarily. It would also have placed limits on the size of the Ukrainian military and granted amnesty for war crimes to all participants in the conflict.
Driscoll, who is a university friend of the US Vice President, JD Vance, traveled to Kiev to brief Zelensky on the plan and demanded he sign it within a few days.
The pressure took Ukrainian and European officials by surprise, along with leaks of the plan. Zelensky said on Friday that the country was facing one of the most difficult moments in its history and was being forced to choose between “losing its dignity or losing a key ally.”
Driscoll then briefed NATO ambassadors in Kiev about the plan. One attendee said it was “a nightmare meeting” and that the European ambassadors were shocked by the content and tone of Driscoll’s presentation.
Washington then walked back its ultimatum and said the 28-point plan was a starting point for discussion.
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