President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine will not walk away from a new round of technical peace talks, even if Europe is kept out of the room. He also said he does not see how security guarantees, or reconstruction, can be agreed without Europeans in the end. The two sentences are the whole argument of this week, and he offered both of them on Wednesday, standing beside the Dutch prime minister, Rob Jetten.
The meeting he is protecting is a trilateral one: the United States, Russia and Ukraine, at the level of technical groups, expected between 6 and 10 November. Abu Dhabi is the venue under discussion. Ushakov, an aide to the Russian president, has already said the European side will not take part. Zelensky did not confirm that exclusion as a settled fact. He did confirm that Kyiv has accepted a three-sided format rather than lose the meeting.
What he will accept, and what he says he will not
"First and foremost, this will be a trilateral meeting of technical groups: the United States, Russia and Ukraine," he said. "It has been accepted that this is a trilateral meeting, but this is not something new. It was blocked before, and now it has been unblocked." Russia, he said, does not support a European presence. His answer was to keep working on one anyway. "We hope that one way or another we will find a way to involve Europe. Ultimately, we are talking about security guarantees for Ukraine. I do not see this happening without Europe. After all, we are talking about reconstruction."
Asked why Ukraine agrees to formats that leave Europeans outside, he said Kyiv will use every chance to move the process. "If the Americans say no, and that this time we will only have a trilateral meeting, we will not ruin this opportunity to meet. Because we need to move this process towards peace in any format." He added that it is still unclear who would speak for Europe if a chair is eventually pulled up. That question is now sitting with European capitals, including London, which has spent the month arguing about frozen Russian assets rather than about seats at a table in the Gulf.
The Talks, as Described on Wednesday
- Technical teams from the United States, Russia and Ukraine, expected between 6 and 10 November.
- Abu Dhabi is the venue being discussed. Zelensky says the meeting depends on Washington.
- Ushakov says Europe will not be there. Zelensky says guarantees and reconstruction need Europe.
- An energy ceasefire has failed, he said, because strikes on Ukrainian energy sites continued.
The ceasefire that did not hold
The diplomatic calendar is running ahead of the military one. Zelensky said on Wednesday that a proposed energy ceasefire had failed because Moscow kept striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure. He did point to early progress in a separate, US-brokered humanitarian arrangement around Oleshky, in occupied territory. The menu of ceasefire formats is still the five-track list we set out at the start of the month. An energy truce was one of them. It has not stuck.
The previous push towards three-way talks, when Steve Witkoff carried proposals from Oslo towards the Kremlin, is the backdrop. Kyiv said then that it would support a return to that format. What is new is the date range, the Gulf venue, and an explicit Russian attempt to keep the European Union outside the technical round. Frozen assets remain the European lever. Kyiv wants the 2027 financing gap underwritten, and Ed Miliband, the foreign secretary, has told Brussels to unlock the Euroclear billions. A seat at Abu Dhabi and a decision on those assets are now the same negotiation, conducted in different cities.
What London and the capitals are being asked
Zelensky's request is practical. If Europe is not in the technical room, it still has to know who would sign a guarantee, who would pay for reconstruction, and who would police a line that Russia has already broken on energy. He said there are signs, after a conversation between European leaders and Vladimir Putin, that Moscow is serious about sending a team to Abu Dhabi. He also said the meeting happens only if the United States wants it to happen.
That leaves the next fortnight as a test of whether "a way to involve Europe" is a phrase or a chair. The technical talks can start without one. They cannot finish the questions Zelensky listed, security and rebuilding, unless someone from this side of the continent is eventually allowed to speak.