Financial Times (the British newspaper FT), citing an American official, writes that the US asked Russia whether it agrees to security guarantees for Ukraine modeled on Article 5 of the NATO charter — both from Washington and from the alliance. According to the publication, the final decision on American guarantees will be made by Donald Trump.
The newspaper also claims that Vladimir Putin is not showing readiness to end the war and is counting on weakening Ukraine this winter with massive strikes on its infrastructure. FT sources familiar with his position say that he is demanding the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from areas of Donbas still under Kyiv's control even before a ceasefire.
According to these data, the Kremlin intends to tie any future security guarantees to new territorial concessions from Ukraine. Washington, in turn, insists that territorial issues and postwar security guarantees must be discussed in parallel and resolved at the same time.
According to the American publication Politico, the first day of talks in Abu Dhabi will be devoted to security guarantees and a possible revision of the European security system, and the second to territorial issues, including future borders. The Russian side, as a source in the delegation told Interfax, considers the creation of a new security system in Europe to be the main topic of the talks, while the settlement of the war in Ukraine is only one item on the agenda.
American officials claim that Russia and Ukraine have already shown “flexibility” in closed discussions of the territorial issue, but do not specify exactly how it is expressed. FT notes that Moscow has so far not demonstrated readiness for concessions, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously said that territorial issues can only be discussed at a meeting of the heads of state.
The US is also trying to persuade Moscow to allow European countries into the next round of negotiations. Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to Politico, want this meeting to be the last one without full European participation, but Russia is still against it. No breakthrough in Abu Dhabi is expected in Kyiv, Washington, or European capitals.
Sources
