Burc Eruygur
23 January 2026•Update: 23 January 2026
ISTANBUL
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday said the issue of the Donbas region will be “key” during the trilateral talks in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday.
“The issue of Donbas is key. It will be discussed and the modalities will be discussed, as the three parties see it, in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow,” Zelenskyy told journalists, according to state news agency Ukrinform.
Zelenskyy’s comments come ahead of two days of trilateral talks between Russian, Ukrainian, and US negotiators in the Emirati capital, set to begin later on Friday.
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had also confirmed that he and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would head to Abu Dhabi after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday.
He said “a lot of progress” had been made in Russia-Ukraine peace talks, and that negotiations were down to one last issue.
“(The) American team will go to Moscow today. They waited for our meeting with President Trump. And now they will go, and my team will meet (the) American team. And I think it will be the first trilateral meeting in (the) Emirates. It will be tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Yes, it will be two days (of) meetings,” Zelenskyy had said earlier at Davos.
He later announced the composition of Kyiv's delegation to Abu Dhabi. It includes Kyrylo Budanov, the head of presidential office, and National Security and Defense Council chief Rustem Umerov.
Following talks between Putin and the US envoys in Moscow, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists that they agreed to hold the first meeting of a trilateral working group on security matters in Abu Dhabi, and that it will also serve as a venue for a meeting of the heads of a bilateral working group on economic matters.
Ushakov said Moscow's delegation will be led by Igor Kostyukov, the head of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of Russia's Armed Forces, while a separate bilateral meeting on economic issues would also take place in Abu Dhabi involving Witkoff and Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
He added that the Russian side reaffirmed its position that there is “no hope of achieving a long-term settlement” in Ukraine without resolving territorial issues based on the formula agreed upon during the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska last August.
Zelenskyy also touched on security guarantees for Ukraine with the US, reaffirming that a deal on the issue is ready to be signed.
"Now I am waiting for the date and place from President Trump. It's up to him. We are ready to sign such an important, historical document for us," he said.
Zelenskyy said the prosperity agreement is comprised of a "bunch of documents," and that while they are not yet ready to be signed, Kyiv sees positives in this regard.
He added that it is important to understand the sources of funding for the package.
"They must be clear, transparent, because Ukraine will be rebuilt on this foundation in the coming years. It is important that everyone — not only our team, but also the next one — understand where the money will come from, where the funding will come from, and what Ukraine can really count on," Zelenskyy said.
