Russia-Ukraine Talks Shift to Post-War Security Without Deal

What changed

Two days of trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States in Abu Dhabi ended without an agreement to end the nearly five-year war. Russia and Ukraine said a large-scale prisoner exchange is being prepared, while US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are due to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Volodymyr Zelensky in Dublin on Thursday.

Why it matters

The talks moved beyond battlefield bargaining toward the harder question of who would guarantee Ukraine’s security after the war. Kyiv wants assurances that allies would help if Russia attacked again; Moscow wants limits on Nato’s influence in eastern Europe. Neither side has moved past the central disputes over territory, whether fighting should stop before or after a deal, and how European governments would participate.

That makes the prisoner exchange the clearest possible near-term result, though its timing is still uncertain. The Abu Dhabi round was the first since February, and the next test comes on Thursday: whether the US meetings can produce a second round of negotiations, or merely expose how far apart the positions remain.