Kiev/Cairo, 24 January 2026 (dpa/MIA) - The first round of direct talks between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi ended on Friday evening, shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that further negotiations are set for Saturday.

Peace negotiations between Ukraine, Russia and the United States began on Friday in the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Zelensky said discussions are set to focus on territorial issues.

"It is too early to draw conclusions on the content of the negotiations today: We will see how the conversation will go tomorrow and what the results will be," Zelensky said in his evening video message broadcast in Kiev.

Ukraine's chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said late on Friday in Abu Dhabi that "the meeting was dedicated to the conditions for ending the Russian war." He did not provide further details.

UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan hoped the trilateral talks would contribute to "tangible steps" to end the crisis of nearly four years.

Russian state media reported that the negotiations were completely sealed from the public.

At the core of the talks is whether Ukraine will agree to Russia's condition for a ceasefire and withdraw from the part of Donbass that is still under Kiev's control.

The Donbass is an area in eastern Ukraine that is primarily focused on the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk in the country's traditional coal-mining region.

"The Donbass issue is a key issue" for the talks, Zelensky told journalists earlier Friday.

The Russian state news agency TASS cited negotiating sources as saying that the discussions also included the creation of buffer zones in the event of a ceasefire.

There have been no direct official meetings between the two warring parties for several months, with Istanbul being the most recent venue.

However, Russian and Ukrainian military officials have used Abu Dhabi for informal meetings to discuss the exchange of prisoners of war.

Washington has for months been leading efforts to get Russia and Ukraine to reach a peaceful resolution to the war, but the two sides still have conflicting positions.

Moscow claims the entire eastern Ukrainian province of Donetsk, and controls just under 80% of it. Kiev has so far refused to withdraw voluntarily.

The neighbouring Luhansk province is almost completely controlled by Russian troops.

Yuri Ushakov, a foreign policy adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday that without a solution to the territorial issue, there would be no lasting peace, TASS reported.

As long as there is no sustainable solution to the conflict, Russia will continue the fighting, he added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that the territorial issues should be clarified in accordance with the Anchorage agreements, referring to a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Putin in Alaska in August.

However, Peskov refused to specify what this meant - given there were no formal summit conclusions - saying only: "We don't think it's appropriate," according to the Interfax news agency.

"Russia's position is known: that Ukraine and the Ukrainian armed forces must leave the Donbass region," he said.

War set to enter fifth year

Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian invasion for almost four years, since February 24, 2022.

In recent months Ukraine has suffered major hits to its power generation capacity from Russian strikes, and Russian forces on the front lines have made slow advances.

Representatives of the Russian Defence Ministry have been sent to join a security working group, Peskov said.

These are known to include the head of the GRU military intelligence service, Igor Kostyukov. 

Photo: MIA archive