Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are set to tackle the contentious issue of territory during two days of talks in Abu Dhabi starting Friday, with no indication that either side is willing to compromise to end the four-year war.
Ukraine faces growing pressure from the United States to reach a peace deal in the conflict triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Moscow, however, continues to demand that Kyiv cede its remaining control of the eastern industrial region of Donbas before halting hostilities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the territorial dispute would be a top priority during the UAE discussions.
“The question of Donbas is key. It will be discussed how the three sides… see this in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow,” Zelenskiy said in a WhatsApp media chat, a day after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Both leaders described the meeting as positive.
The talks were scheduled to begin Friday evening and resume on Saturday morning, according to a Zelenskiy aide.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s insistence that Ukraine surrender the roughly 20 percent of Donetsk oblast still under Kyiv’s control—about 5,000 square kilometres (1,900 square miles)—has long blocked a breakthrough. Zelenskiy has repeatedly refused to cede territory that Russia has been unable to capture despite four years of grinding, attritional warfare.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized Friday that Moscow’s demand for Ukraine to yield Donbas remains “a very important condition.”
A source close to the Kremlin told Reuters that Moscow interprets the so-called “Anchorage formula,” reportedly agreed between Trump and Putin at a summit last August, as granting Russia full control of Donbas while freezing front lines elsewhere in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions Moscow claimed to annex in 2022 after referendums widely dismissed by Kyiv and Western nations as illegitimate. Most countries continue to recognise Donetsk as part of Ukraine, though Putin maintains it is historically Russian territory.
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