OMM Newsroom
Russia and Ukraine have privately shown some “flexibility” over the future of the eastern Donetsk region, despite maintaining unchanged public positions, a US official said Monday, according to Anadolu Agency.
“Obviously, the public positions remain the same, which is Russia says they want all Donetsk, and Ukraine is saying let’s do the contact line, but both sides have shown a little bit of flexibility privately,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
“We’re going to start the discussion about what that can be,” the official added.
Russian, Ukrainian and US representatives are scheduled to meet in Abu Dhabi from Tuesday for a renewed round of trilateral peace negotiations.
The territorial question cannot be settled before the sides define post-war security arrangements, the official said.
“They will not solve the Donetsk issue and the territorial issue until they know what their security architecture is going to be after the war,” the official said. “We’re not going to be able to finalize one without the other.”
“If both parties know how to finish, they have to know what they’re finishing into,” the official added.
US discusses security guarantees for Ukraine
The official said the US had asked Russia to allow Washington to provide Ukraine with security guarantees modelled on NATO’s Articles 4 and 5, with NATO providing the same.
“What they would be getting would be effectively very similar to NATO,” the official said.
“We’ll see what President Donald Trump decides if he wants to grant it. Getting a US security guarantee is a really, really big deal,” the official added. “President Volodymyr Zelensky will have to ask him, and then he’ll have to agree to do that.”
The US has a list of “seven, eight issues” for the sides to discuss, the official said, adding that Washington did not expect the questions to be resolved in Abu Dhabi but wanted to restart the process.
Germany, France, the UK, Italy, NATO and the EU will also join the talks in Abu Dhabi, the official said.
“This is the first time I feel like we see real desire on the Russian side to finish,” the official added.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner could travel again soon to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the official said.
Russia and Ukraine last held US-mediated peace talks early this year, with three rounds taking place in January and February in Abu Dhabi and Geneva.
In August 2025, after a summit between Trump and Putin in Alaska, Witkoff said Russia had agreed that the US and European countries could offer Ukraine Article 5-like security guarantees. Last December, after talks in Berlin, US officials said Washington had offered such guarantees to Kyiv.
