“I spoke in great detail with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for an hour and a half,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday evening, November 4, describing a phone call with Donald Trump’s two main negotiators—the US president’s special envoy and his son-in-law. “We are preparing for a trilateral format at the team level between Ukraine, the United States and Russia—in less than a week,” Zelenskyy said.
According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine is “ready to take the necessary steps,” its proposals are “clear,” and they have already been submitted to the US side. “The pace of the negotiations must be as intense as possible so that we can end this war as quickly as possible,” the president stressed.
Patriot interceptors and “ironclad” guarantees
Air defense was discussed separately. Ukraine needs interceptors for Patriot systems “to protect lives from Russian strikes,” Zelenskyy said; he added that work with Washington must continue on every bilateral track, including through the Drone Deals format. In an interview with Fox News on November 1, he proposed a one-month halt to strikes on Russian oil refineries if the United States provided Ukraine with Patriot missiles for the same period. “There is no alternative to peace, and postwar security guarantees must truly be ironclad,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Consultations are also under way in Brussels. On Wednesday, teams from Ukraine, the United States, the EU, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, NATO, the World Bank and representatives of the global business community met there to discuss postwar reconstruction. On Thursday, November 5, discussions in Brussels focused on security guarantees for Ukraine. A diplomatic source told TASS that the first day of consultations produced no practical results in terms of a settlement.
Kremlin: Medinsky will lead the delegation again
Witkoff was the first to announce the meeting in Abu Dhabi on November 10–11: the United States will mediate talks between Ukraine and Russia at the working level, where the sides will discuss postwar security mechanisms, de-escalation, humanitarian issues and the next steps toward peace. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed the dates and said that Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky would again lead the Russian delegation. The talks will address security guarantees, which, according to Peskov, can only be mutual; the details will be discussed behind closed doors, and Europeans will not be at the table because a trilateral format has been agreed.
This will be the first trilateral round since February: previous rounds took place in January and February in Abu Dhabi and Geneva, but the process stalled after the start of the US and Israeli war against Iran, Kyiv Post recalls.
US elections and negotiations
The conversation took place the day after the midterm elections, in which Democrats took control of both chambers of Congress. The Kremlin denied any connection: according to Peskov, the timing of the trilateral talks is “in no way linked to the US elections” (RIA Novosti). “President Trump continues to exercise his powers,” Peskov said in a comment to Life, expressing hope that Trump would also continue his peace efforts; he called possible opposition from Congress an internal US matter. Experts interviewed by CNBC expect Congress to exercise tighter control over the White House’s Ukraine policy, but foreign policy remains in the president’s hands.
Cover photo: Office of the President of Ukraine. In the text: Ukrinform (archive). Based on reports by Anadolu, Interfax-Ukraine, Kyiv Post, TASS, RIA Novosti, Life and CNBC
