Ukraine Expects Answers From Russia as Peace Talks Continue, Zelensky Says

Officials from Russia, Ukraine and the United States are meeting in the United Arab Emirates for rare three-way negotiations.President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Thursday in Switzerland. He said this week that he expected “at least some answers” from Russia on a draft of a peace plan.Credit...Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJan. 24, 2026, 7:29 a.m. ETRare three-way talks among Russian, Ukrainian and American officials entered their second day on Saturday in the United Arab Emirates, as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that he expected “at least some answers” from Russia on the current draft of a plan to end the war.The peace plan originated last fall as a proposal negotiated between the Trump administration and Russia, but it has since been revised several times, with input from Ukraine, the United States, European nations and other countries.Mr. Zelensky argued in recent days that it was time for Russia to provide answers on the peace plan as it now stands, even as Moscow has shown little appetite to stop its attacks on Ukraine.The peace plan’s 20 points cover security, postwar reconstruction, exchanges of prisoners and other matters tied to the conflict, which started nearly four years ago with Russia’s full-scale invasion.Speaking late Friday after the first day of talks, Mr. Zelensky said in a video address to Ukrainians that he was regularly in touch with the country’s negotiators in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and that they “should already have at least some answers” on Moscow’s position.But Mr. Zelensky said it was “still too early to draw conclusions” on whether Russia would negotiate in good faith. The talks are expected to wrap up on Saturday.“It is necessary that not only Ukraine has the desire to end this war and achieve full security, but that a similar desire somehow emerges in Russia as well,” Mr. Zelensky said.ImageA fire at the site of a Russian air attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday. Moscow has shown little appetite to stop its attacks on Ukraine during peace negotiations.Credit...Oleksandr Magula/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDespite some progress in recent months of peace negotiations, Ukraine and Russia are still at odds over key sticking points tied to security and territory.This month, Ukraine fleshed out proposals for postwar security guarantees with both the United States and Europe, with some European countries vowing that they would commit troops to dissuade Russia from invading again. But Moscow has rejected any deployment of troops from NATO member states on Ukrainian territory.And Ukrainian authorities have refused Russia’s request to control all of the Donetsk region, a former industrial and coal-mining powerhouse in eastern Ukraine that the war has left mostly in ruins.U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators have discussed what Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s envoy for peace talks, has called various “iterations” of compromises. Suggestions have included putting neutral forces as peacekeepers in part of the Donetsk region or forming a demilitarized zone.But Russia has rejected any settlement on territory that departs from what Russian officials have characterized as an agreement reached between President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin at a summit in Alaska last summer.After those talks, neither leader publicly laid out a detailed plan for dividing Ukrainian territory, although Mr. Trump told European leaders at the time that he supported a plan to end the war by ceding unconquered territory to Russia.On Friday, Mr. Zelensky said the talks in the United Arab Emirates would focus on control of territory in eastern Ukraine. Any compromise for Ukraine would be bitter after more than a decade of bloodshed defending the region, beginning with a first Russian military incursion in 2014.Mr. Zelensky told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday that “we are at the moment, if all the sides will work a lot, we will end this war.” But he also suggested that Russia might “play games” that would derail talks.Andrew E. Kramer is the Kyiv bureau chief for The Times, who has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014.SKIP