The confirmation of a date is a procedural step, and it should be read as one.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that a new round of trilateral negotiations on the Ukraine conflict is due to begin in the United Arab Emirates next week. Speaking at a meeting with members of Russia's Security Council on Friday, Putin said the talks were scheduled to start on Tuesday, according to RT. The date matches an earlier announcement by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who said this week that Russian, American and Ukrainian delegations would meet in Abu Dhabi on 10-11 November.
Putin told the meeting that he had invited officials expected to take part to discuss preparations. Those present, according to the Kremlin website, included presidential aides Vladimir Medinsky and Yury Ushakov, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev, Deputy Foreign Ministers Mikhail Galuzin and Sergey Ryabkov, military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov and Yury Zhigarlovsky of the General Staff's Main Operational Directorate. The gathering suggests the Russian side is assembling a team spanning diplomatic, security and military expertise.
The full composition of the Russian delegation has not been announced. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that Medinsky would head the team. He is a veteran negotiator who led the Russian delegation during the initial talks with Ukraine in Türkiye in 2022 and in several later rounds of the US-mediated peace process launched after President Donald Trump returned to the White House in early 2025.
According to RT, Witkoff said the working-level talks would focus on post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts and next steps toward peace. That agenda is broad, and the description of the meeting as working-level is significant: it points to technical and preparatory discussions rather than a signing ceremony. The choice of the UAE as venue places the talks in a Gulf state that has maintained channels to both Moscow and Washington.
Several things are not yet known. The source material does not say who will represent Ukraine or the United States, whether all three delegations have confirmed their attendance at the same level, or what, if anything, the parties expect to produce by 11 November. It also does not indicate whether any ceasefire or humanitarian measure is on the table in concrete form. The confirmation of a date is a procedural step, and it should be read as one. It nonetheless matters: a trilateral format involving Washington, Moscow and Kyiv, meeting in person, is a channel that has been difficult to convene. Whether it becomes more than a channel will depend on details the Kremlin has not disclosed.
