Four and a half hours, a 40-minute break, and a second day: Abu Dhabi's first session ends

The first trilateral session between Ukraine, Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi ended on Tuesday afternoon. Russian state media put it at about four and a half hours, with a 40-minute break roughly two hours in, Anadolu reports¹. Talks began at around 09:15 CET, and Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service says they resume on Wednesday morning^1,3.

The American reading. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking after the G7 in France, called the talks “very productive” but said there was still a lot of work to do³. “We think the trilateral (format) should eventually include our European partners at the table as well,” he said². Jared Kushner said at the start that Washington had “narrowed the gaps”, without details².

The Russian reading. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow that defining “clear parameters for a future security architecture, and only then moving on to resolving the actual Russia-Ukraine conflict, is absolutely reasonable”². That is the same order of business US officials proposed before the talks. Agreement on sequence is not agreement on substance: RFE/RL notes Moscow has given no sign of dropping its demand for all of Donbas, including land it does not hold².

The Ukrainian reading. President Zelenskyy, in Copenhagen, said humanitarian issues such as prisoner-of-war exchanges and bringing back children were discussed, with security guarantees on the agenda³. Before the session, Steve Witkoff wrote after meeting European and Ukrainian officials that any arrangement must “provide credible security guarantees for Ukraine”³. The E3, Italy, NATO and the EU consult the US separately from the trilateral table².

The night before. Russia attacked 10 regions overnight, hitting five major substations that move electricity between regions, Ukraine’s prime minister said³.

For you: a first day without a communiqué is not a failure. Prisoner exchanges and returned children are small, countable things. If day two produces one of them, that is more than a speech would.