Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Tri-lateral talks on ending the Ukraine war between Russia, Ukraine and the United States were due to get underway in Abu Dhabi on Friday evening, the first time all three countries have been at the same table since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
The meeting follows four hours of late-night talks between U.S. negotiators, led by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow that the Kremlin said had been "substantive, constructive and very frank."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has dispatched a negotiating team to Abu Dhabi for the meeting, which he said would last for two days, described the talks as "a step -- hopefully towards ending the war."
Both sides cautioned that there could be no durable peace until there was a resolution to thorny territorial issues, notably the Donbas, where Russia is demanding Ukraine relinquish the remaining land it still controls -- about 25%.
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