“Most likely, the next round of tripartite negotiations will take place in the United Arab Emirates, specifically in Abu Dhabi,” Zelensky said, according to the newspaper Ukrainska pravda. “We need to anchor everything that has been achieved to ensure real security guarantees and prepare for a meeting at the level of leaders. This format can solve a lot,” he added.
Although it seemed that Thursday’s meeting in Geneva would only be American-Ukrainian in composition, Kirill Dmitrijev, a close associate and adviser of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also flew to Switzerland for the meeting with US representatives.
Zelenskyy discussed the course of the talks with Ukrainian negotiators headed by the Secretary of the Ukrainian Security Council Rustem Umerov and US ambassadors Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.
Since the March meeting, the Ukrainian president has been promising to open the way to peace talks at the highest level. Zelenskyj has long been proposing direct negotiations with Putin as a way to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the past, Moscow rejected a similar meeting and questioned the legitimacy of the Ukrainian president, whose mandate would have ended in 2024 without the existence of a state of war, when it is not possible to hold elections in the country. Now it has added the condition that such a meeting can only take place in the Russian capital.
Ukrainian, Russian and American negotiators met for the last time on February 17 and 18 in Geneva. Before that, two rounds took place in Abu Dhabi. The key point of contention remains Russia’s demand for the release of the entire territory of the Ukrainian Donbass, i.e. the regions that the Russian army has been unable to conquer since the beginning of the invasion despite high losses. Ukraine refuses to give up its territory and proposes a ceasefire based on the existing front line.
