Nov. 11 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised a “revised approach” by U.S. mediators in trilateral negotiations in Abu Dhabi between Russia and Ukraine after day 1 of the first talks on ending the war in nine months.
Calling the talks “constructive and quite substantive,” Zelensky said Tuesday that he was pleased with the different way U.S. negotiators were approaching the process and that he was hopeful of more progress being made on Wednesday.
“I see changes. I’m very happy with what I hear,” he told reporters in Copenhagen.
Jared Kushner, who is representing the United States in negotiations along with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, said Wednesday that he and Witkoff would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to finalize a prisoner swap agreed at the talks, before traveling to Dublin to meet Zelensky.
Zelensky accused the Russian delegation of overstating the amount of territory Russian forces had captured, including a claim it occupied half of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, saying it showed Putin was living in a “different reality” to everyone else.
“I can draw a picture for him too where I fully occupy Russia. But it’s not true. What was good is that the American side confirmed the Ukrainian assessment of what is happening on the battlefield.”
In a post on X after talks wrapped up for the day on Tuesday, Kushner expressed cautious optimism.
“We are encouraged by the constructive discussions today,” he wrote.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was not at the talks, also expressed confidence, describing them as “very productive,” but said the Europeans would at some point need to be part of the process “because they are part of solving this problem.”
Kushner and Witkoff met with representatives from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission the sidelines of the main talks in a bid to bridge the gulf in the positions of Moscow and European capitals, some of which are calling for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire before any negotiations can proceed.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s opposition, telling a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday that the only thing a truce would achieve would be to give Ukraine space to rebuild its military.
“European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said no discussions on security architecture would be held ahead of a sustainable cease-fire. This is the old logic again. By all means, it is necessary to buy time for their clients, the Kyiv regime, and use this time to restore to a certain extent, its military losses. We will not agree to it,” he said.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.