Trump pushes for a Ukraine peace deal as three-way talks open in Abu Dhabi

The two-day talks in Abu Dhabi, starting November 10, are the first time Russia, Ukraine and the United States have shared a table since February. According to Hindustan Times, Trump's heavy defeat in the midterms has injected fresh urgency into the process: Democratic majorities arrive in both houses of Congress in January, handing his lead negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner a hard deadline — and the prospect of investigations into alleged conflicts of interest. Ukrainian negotiators are privately doubtful anything breaks through, but were told to keep an open mind, if only to avoid annoying Trump.

Moscow is showing unusual flexibility, even on freezing the fighting along current front lines. That softening only appeared after American negotiators offered to widen the agenda to European security, a move critics say hands Russia room to make demands that can never be met — letting it keep fighting while appearing to negotiate. US officials insist European partners and NATO back the proposals. Ukraine doesn't buy that Putin is ready to sign a comprehensive deal before Russia's winter campaign ends. 'Maybe it is their Plan B, while they execute their Plan A,' one senior Ukrainian official said.

A more realistic outcome, per the report, is a patchwork of staggered prisoner exchanges and localised ceasefires in less strategically vital stretches of front line, such as the Kherson and Sumy regions. The template is the recent ceasefire that let residents of Oleshky in Kherson evacuate — brokered with help from First Lady Melania Trump. 'The Russians appear to want to support Melania's efforts,' a second Ukrainian official said. 'It's helpful for their relationship with Mr Trump.'

Washington has already dangled controversial sweeteners. One would plug Russia back into European energy markets, breaking a new European Union law — a proposal Ukraine and its European partners are refusing. 'Not a chance of us agreeing to that while the war is still raging,' a Ukrainian official said. Another idea, according to people involved, is a cartographic fudge: redrawing Ukraine's administrative boundaries so Russia can claim full control of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions it covets, without Kyiv surrendering the cities it still holds.

Security guarantees remain the hardest knot. America's negotiators say Putin could accept a NATO-style Article 4 or Article 5 commitment — a promise to consult if Ukraine is threatened, or defend it if attacked. Ukrainians doubt Trump would honour it. Russia shows no sign of allowing a multinational reassurance force inside Ukraine, and hasn't dropped demands that Kyiv declare neutrality and shrink its army. A source close to the White House floated a reworked NATO-Russia Council as the model for a new architecture, saying it was not wrong to imagine 'what comes after', and that 'nobody has been able to solve this conflict while everyone is telling the US how [to do so]'.

Money is the other fight. Ukraine says it needs massive security and financial backing for at least ten years if it is to risk demobilisation and Russia's return to the world economy — covering war damage, veterans' families and an army of at least 800,000 men. The Americans call that too expensive for its backers and argue their guarantees should be enough. Meanwhile Ukraine enters winter with infrastructure in its worst state since the invasion, nearly out of Patriot missiles, and no new deliveries from a US supply deal. Russia holds roughly 700 ballistic missiles, builds another 110 a month, and is midway through a campaign to make Ukrainian cities, Kyiv above all, uninhabitable. 'Our American friends want a breakthrough,' the senior Ukrainian official said. 'But seeing what the Russians are doing with our infrastructure, it's hard to believe one is coming.'