Journalists from The Times report that during trilateral talks between the United States, Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi, the Russian delegation effectively aligned itself with the American approach on territorial issues. One source told the newspaper that negotiators on their side initially hoped to secure some form of commitment on territorial concessions, but in the end, they simply had to accept the American position.

At the same time, Moscow insisted on the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from those parts of Donbass that remain outside Russian control, but Kiev refused to comply with this demand. The territorial question became the most sensitive and difficult topic in Abu Dhabi, and there were no visible signs of any compromise on this issue during the meeting.

US presidential special envoy Steve Witkoff had earlier stated that Washington had several, as he put it, very strong ideas regarding the territorial settlement and that these proposals could be acceptable for Russian president Vladimir Putin. Vladimir Zelensky, for his part, said that the Ukrainian army was prepared to pull its troops back from the front line to the same depth as Russian forces.

At the end of December last year, Putin said that the pace of the Russian army’s advance made it possible to count on establishing control over the entire territory of Donbass. He stressed that, one way or another, these territories would end up under Moscow’s control.