RFE
12 Nov 2026

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have started a meeting in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin following two days of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The November 12 meeting is Witkoff's 10th with Putin as Washington presses ahead with efforts to broker an end to the war, despite little sign of compromise on the key issues dividing Moscow and Kyiv.

The talks come as Russian strikes continue to kill civilians and damage Ukraine's energy infrastructure, while Kyiv says it has been experiencing renewed disruptions to the US-made Starshield satellite communications system that threaten to hamper Ukraine's defenses against aerial attacks

While the Abu Dhabi discussions on November 10-11 appeared to yield only limited humanitarian progress, with a large-scale prisoner exchange in the works, there was no sign of a breakthrough toward peace.

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US officials described the negotiations as tough but productive, while Moscow and Kyiv remained far apart in their positions, with the Kremlin offering no concessions on its hard-line demands.

Russia's chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, who led previous talks with Ukraine in 2022 and 2025 without breaking the deadlock, said territorial exchanges as part of a settlement were out of the question.

The Kremlin has for years been pushing for any peace deal to include full control over territory in Ukraine's key eastern Donetsk region, which Russian forces have been unable to seize on the battlefield.

The issue has been widely regarded as central to the resolution of the conflict.

The talks, however, have also looked at wider security arrangements for Europe, with Washington seeking to broaden negotiations beyond Ukraine.

While such discussions could potentially bring European governments into a peace process from which they have so far largely been excluded, the matter has previously been used by Russia as another major obstacle to a diplomatic resolution of the war.

Prior to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow blamed the crisis on NATO and the United States, accusing them of "escalating tensions" and demanding what it called security guarantees.

The demands included a ban on Ukraine joining NATO and limits on the deployment of troops and weapons to the alliance's eastern flank, a move that would effectively return NATO forces to their 1997 positions.

Map: The Expansion Of NATO

Zelenskyy said that Kyiv hoped concrete results could be achieved this year in talks on resolving the conflict as Ukraine heads into its fifth wartime winter with thousands of people repeatedly left without electricity or heating amid relentless Russian strikes.

But much of the progress in the talks depended on how the United States approaches Moscow, the Ukrainian president added.

"We are living through these massive attacks," he said. "Of course, we want to get results by the end of this year, and of course, we will be doing everything to make that happen."

Oleksandr Krayev, an analyst at Ukrainian Prism, a Kyiv-based think tank, told Current Time that he saw Zelenskyy's remarks as "primarily a homage to the US negotiators and a tribute to US involvement in the process," amid Washington's interest for a "quick result" that Kyiv fears might come at "Ukraine's expense."

Ukrainian government has repeatedly argued that increasing pressure on the Kremlin and its war machine could shift the balance of power in the war and force Russia into meaningful negotiations that could stop the conflict.

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The current US administration, however, has taken a more conciliatory approach toward Russia, recently easing sanctions and striking a diesel deal with Moscow while pressing Kyiv not to attack its oil refineries.

During Witkoff's last meeting with Putin in October, he called the Russian leader a "humanitarian" after Moscow released US citizen Stephen Hubbard from prison, framing the development as a goodwill gesture.

Speaking to RFE/RL's Russian Service, political analyst Aleksandr Morozov, said that "talk of restoring some kind of European security sounds almost absurd" while Ukraine was experiencing "the peak of Russian aggression."

"Throughout US President Donald Trump's peace initiative, Moscow has been thanking him for his efforts while simultaneously manipulating Washington's intention to bring about a cease-fire," he added.

The fighting showed no sign of abating on November 12, as Russia and Ukraine exchanged fresh drone and missile attacks while the US envoys arrived in Moscow.

Explosions were reported in Kyiv, where at least one person was killed when a Russian drone has struck high-rise residential building, setting it on fire and partially destroying one of its floors.