The United States restarted Ukraine peace talks with Russia–Ukraine meetings Tuesday and Wednesday in Abu Dhabi — the first since February’s freeze — but hostility remains after nearly five years of war, AGERPRES reported citing EFE.

“Such deals take time. They’re hard. When we negotiated the Abraham Accords, it took three and a half years,” said White House envoy Jared Kushner. He heads to Moscow Thursday to see Vladimir Putin, then Dublin to meet Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seeking “more progress.”

The only concrete result flagged was a preliminary deal on a large prisoner swap; numbers — speculated above a thousand each side — are due to be published soon.

Moscow steered talks toward a new European security architecture rather than an immediate ceasefire. “The world needs a new security system,” Russian delegation chief Vladimir Medinsky said, insisting Russia will reclaim “every centimetre” it claims “one way or another.”

Zelenskyy held firm: first stop the fighting and deliver security guarantees for Ukraine. Rustem Umerov cites “substantial differences”; Davyd Arakhamia still sees momentum for a solution before New Year.

Kushner wants to explore bringing Europeans into a multilateral format in Moscow. Medinsky accused Europeans of offering no peace proposals and called them “tourists,” without fully shutting the door on a concrete offer.

Image: Wikimedia Commons — Abu Dhabi Corniche (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Sources consulted: US restarts peace process in Abu Dhabi — AGERPRES.