Russia upgrades its delegation for US-led Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi

Bloomberg News on Nov 7, 2026

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Russia is sending a higher-level team to U.S.-mediated talks with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi than to previous rounds, hinting at an openness to more substantive negotiations after months of diplomatic deadlock.

The lineup for the meetings, which are due to start on Tuesday, suggests Moscow may be ready to focus on both political and battlefield issues as its invasion of Ukraine grinds toward the five-year mark.

Moscow’s delegation to the United Arab Emirates will include Deputy Foreign Ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov, and senior General Staff officer Yury Zhigarlovsky, Interfax reported on Saturday, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The team will be led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky.

Ryabkov is the top Russian diplomat who oversees ties with U.S., Iran and arms control negotiations, while Medinsky has been involved in Russian negotiations with Ukraine since 2022 talks in Istanbul. Kostyukov also led Moscow’s delegation to Abu Dhabi in January.

President Vladimir Putin discussed preparations for the talks with Russia’s Security Council on Friday, and all members of the delegation heading to UAE attended that meeting, according to Kremlin website.

Putin agreed to resume trilateral negotiations with the U.S. and Ukraine on a potential peace deal when he met with U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in October in Moscow. The talks will include discussion of a security mechanism for Russia and Ukraine after the end of the conflict, according to the Kremlin.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been in talks with allies in various formats ahead of the discussions in Abu Dhabi, including the Nordic-Baltic Eight regional cooperation group. He had a “very detailed” call with Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, on Wednesday, according to a social media post.

Ukraine’s delegation will be led by Rustem Umerov, head of the nation’s foreign intelligence service. He recently led the country’s team in the talks with U.S. and Europe on support for Ukraine’s war effort and economic recovery. Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov and David Arakhamia, the head of Zelenskyy’s party in Ukraine’s parliament, are also part of the team.

“It is not easy, but we need to get onto the diplomatic track and move toward ending the war. We are coordinating with our partners,” Zelenskyy said on X in Friday. “Ukraine is doing everything to make peace happen.”

The Trump administration has in recent weeks ramped up efforts to broker an end to the war. Kushner said in a post on X that the U.S. held discussions with Ukraine, NATO, and European partners in Brussels on “security guarantees for Ukraine and a broader European security architecture.”

European officials insist that Russia must halt its war against Ukraine before entertaining any talk about the continent’s broader security configuration, a point Zelenskyy also drove on in an X post on Saturday.

“It’s dangerous when Russia wants to begin these discussions with a new security infrastructure in Europe,” Zelenskyy said, citing an interview with CNN. “By the by, it’s even more dangerous for the EU.”

The renewed diplomatic push comes after a recent sharp intensification of long-range attacks. Russia has repeatedly launched large-scale missile and drone barrages against Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities, with strikes on energy, transport and other infrastructure adding to pressure on civilians as winter approaches.

Ukraine since late October has resumed a campaign of airstrikes against oil refineries and other energy targets, many of them deep within Russia, after a pause pushed by Trump ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. Kyiv has also struck military sites and logistics hubs in Russia.

Trump has said he’ll have meetings on Russia and Ukraine with “a lot of different people” this weekend. “Russia and Ukraine for the first time, I think, want to settle,” Trump told reporters on Friday, without offering evidence.