Ukraine’s Zelenskyy hopes Abu Dhabi talks will open path to Putin meeting

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he hopes upcoming United States-mediated talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi will lead to a three-way meeting of leaders that includes Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking in Berlin on Tuesday alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Zelenskyy said the adviser-level talks, set for November 10 and 11 , were part of a broader diplomatic push to end the war.

“We are counting on the fact that work in this format and our other diplomatic steps will open the way to a trilateral format at the level of leaders,” Zelenskyy told reporters.

Asked about the Abu Dhabi talks, Merz said it was “important that Russia finally and seriously engages in negotiations about a ceasefire and a subsequent peace agreement”.

“I do not see that happening so far,” the chancellor said.

Zelenskyy’s visit to Berlin was not announced in advance for security reasons.

On landing, he said on X that diplomatic coordination, strengthening air defences and supporting Ukraine’s energy sector would top the agenda.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff announced the new round of talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US on Monday. He said the discussions would focus on “post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts, and next steps toward peace”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that a Russian delegation would attend, led as before by former Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, the state news agency TASS reported.

Europe seeks a seat at the table

The build-up to next week’s talks follows one of the most notable displays of cooperation between the warring sides since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Last week, human rights ombudsmen from Russia and Ukraine oversaw a local ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky to evacuate residents and deliver aid, in a mission brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump.

Putin and Zelenskyy have had no direct contact since the invasion, and their representatives have held only a handful of rounds of talks.

Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane, reporting from Berlin, said there was a clear sense from Zelenskyy and Merz that the Abu Dhabi meeting “is a step forward, and there was an element of positivity about it”.

He said one journalist raised an important issue, saying “Europe and Ukraine are supposedly in lockstep with each other”, before asking, “why then are the Europeans not going to be in Abu Dhabi in those talks?”

“There was not much of a reply there, but it’s clearly an issue, a thorny issue, perhaps, certainly for the Europeans,” Kane said.

European governments have insisted on being involved in the negotiations but are unlikely to be at the table in Abu Dhabi.

Instead, US envoys are due to meet representatives from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, NATO and the European Union in Brussels this week to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe’s post-war security architecture.

Zelenskyy has said Ukraine needs an additional 70 billion euros ($77.5bn) from European countries next year.

Kane said successive German governments had pledged their full support to Ukraine, financing its efforts to fend off Russian attacks and supplying weapons and ammunition.

But he said Merz knows that “the financial aspect of helping Ukraine has become a real issue, given that the economy here and in other European countries is particularly threatened right now”.

“The cost of living in this country for many voters has become a serious issue,” Kane said.

He added that parties opposed to funding Ukraine, including the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the left-wing Die Linke, were “prospering in the polls and in elections”.

Several summits are planned before year-end

US President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin may hold three-way talks on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Shenzhen, China, on November 18 and 19 .

Around the same time, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, a group of about 35 countries backing Ukraine, is due to meet in Berlin.

The Group of 20 (G20) summit follows in Florida from December 13 to 15 , where it remains unclear whether Putin will attend for the first time since the invasion.