The United Arab Emirates has told the US it wants to host talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine that could eventually include a peace summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said several sources familiar with the matter.
Ukraine and its European allies demanded on Thursday that they be included in any peace negotiations, after US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and said Kyiv would neither get all its land back nor join Nato.
Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Thursday that any peace deal in Ukraine must be enduring and that any discussions must include Kyiv.
UAE offers to host talks aimed at ending Ukraine war
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has told the US it wants to host talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine that could eventually include a peace summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, several people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
US President Donald Trump has said one of his top priorities is to end the nearly three-year conflict, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine, saying on Wednesday that he could meet Putin in Saudi Arabia. The UAE has eagerly pitched itself to play a key role in trying to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, said five sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Three of those sources — in the US and UAE — said UAE officials had proposed to Washington that the Gulf country host a “peace summit”. Two of those people said such a summit could eventually include a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.
A fourth source — close to Trump — said the UAE had emerged as a top candidate for the first meeting between Trump and Putin. The Kremlin said no decision has been made.
When asked for comment, the White House referred to Trump’s remarks on Wednesday. The UAE foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump, who took office on 20 January, separately discussed the war on Wednesday with Putin and Zelensky. However, his mediation efforts could already have been complicated by blunt remarks from his defence secretary signalling concessions to Russia. Wary European powers also want a seat at the negotiating table.
The UAE, a top oil producer whose state-controlled funds are major international investors, is in a unique geopolitical position. The Gulf state is one of Washington’s key Middle East security partners and hosts US troops. But it also has warm ties with Moscow and a strengthened relationship with Kyiv since the war began.
Along with neighbouring Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the UAE has brokered several prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine since Moscow invaded its neighbour in February 2022.
The UAE is among several nations that have expressed interest in hosting peace talks. Serbia and Switzerland both expressed interest in January, while The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported that China had privately pitched itself to host Trump and Putin.
Along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the UAE has become increasingly important in geopolitics over the past decade as it has sought to carve out a role on the global stage.
The UAE endeared itself to Trump during his first term by becoming the first Arab state in decades to establish diplomatic ties with US ally Israel under a deal brokered by Washington in 2020 — a signature achievement of Trump’s administration.
However, the UAE’s accommodating relationship with Russia has at times frustrated Western officials, including the administration of former US President Joe Biden, which sought to isolate Moscow over the war. Russian wealth streamed into the UAE as Western states sanctioned Moscow for invading Ukraine.
At the same time, the UAE has condemned Russia’s invasion, agreed to a free-trade deal with Ukraine and sent humanitarian aid.
Emirati officials have previously said maintaining ties with a diverse range of international actors enables them to engage — and mediate — when others cannot.
UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told Putin during an October visit to Moscow the Gulf state was ready to help resolve the conflict. A month earlier, Sheikh Mohamed met with Trump in Florida ahead of the US presidential election.
Kyiv, EU alarmed by prospect of ‘dirty deal’ after Trump-Putin call
Ukraine and its European allies demanded on Thursday that they be included in any peace negotiations, after Trump spoke by phone with Putin and said Kyiv would neither get all its land back nor join Nato.
Russia’s financial markets soared and the price of Ukraine’s debt rose at the prospect of the first talks in years to end Europe’s deadliest war since World War 2.
But Trump’s unilateral overture to Putin, accompanied by apparent concessions on Ukraine’s principal demands, raised alarm for both Kyiv and the European allies in Nato who said they feared the White House might make a deal without them.
“We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” said Zelensky. He said Putin aimed to make his negotiations bilateral with the US, and it was important that this not be allowed.
The Kremlin said plans were under way for Putin and Trump to meet, possibly in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine would “of course” participate in peace talks in some way, but there would also be a bilateral negotiation track between the US and Russia, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
European officials took an exceptionally firm line in public towards Trump’s peace overture, saying any agreement would be impossible to implement unless they and the Ukrainians were included in negotiating it.
“Any quick fix is a dirty deal,” said European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. She also denounced the apparent concessions offered in advance.
“Why are we giving them [Russia] everything that they want even before the negotiations have been started?” said Kallas. “It’s appeasement. It has never worked.”
A European diplomatic source said ministers had agreed to engage in a “frank and demanding dialogue” with US officials — some of the strongest language in the diplomatic lexicon — at the annual Munich Security Conference beginning on Friday.
On Wednesday Trump made the first publicly acknowledged White House call with Putin since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion and then followed it up with a call to Zelensky. Trump said he believed both men wanted peace.
But the Trump administration also said openly for the first time that it was unrealistic for Ukraine to expect to return to its 2014 borders or join the Nato alliance as part of any agreement, and that no US troops would join any security force in Ukraine that might be set up to guarantee a ceasefire.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who unveiled the new policy in remarks at Nato headquarters, said on Thursday the world was fortunate to have Trump, the “best negotiator on the planet, bringing two sides together to find a negotiated peace”.
Kremlin spokesperson Peskov said Moscow was “impressed” by Trump’s willingness to seek a settlement.
Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and its proxies captured territory in the east in 2014, before its full-scale invasion in 2022 when it captured more land in the east and south.
Ukraine pushed Russian invaders back from the outskirts of Kyiv and recaptured swathes of territory in 2022, but its outmanned and outgunned forces have slowly ceded more land since a failed Ukrainian counter-offensive in 2023.
Relentless fighting has killed or injured hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides and pulverised Ukrainian cities.
Meanwhile, there has been no narrowing of positions on either side. Moscow demands Kyiv cede more land and be rendered permanently neutral in any peace deal; Kyiv says Russian troops must withdraw and it must win security guarantees comparable to Nato membership to prevent future attacks.
Ukrainian officials have acknowledged in the past that full Nato membership may be out of reach in the short term and that a hypothetical peace deal could leave some occupied land in Russian hands.
But Kyiv and its European allies made clear they were alarmed by what they viewed as the Trump administration conceding both those positions before talks began.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv remained committed to joining Nato, which he said was the simplest and least expensive way the West could provide the security guarantees needed to ensure peace.
“All our allies have said the path of Ukraine towards Nato is irreversible. This prospect is in our constitution. It is in our strategic interest.”
Nato chief says Kyiv must be involved in peace deal
Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Thursday that any peace deal in Ukraine must be enduring and that any discussions must include Kyiv.
“It is crucial that whatever comes out of those talks, it is durable, it is enduring,” Rutte told reporters in Brussels ahead of talks with the alliance’s defence ministers.
The secretary-general also said it was crucial “that Ukraine is closely involved in everything happening about Ukraine”.
Kremlin says Ukraine will be involved in peace talks
Russia said on Thursday that Ukraine would “of course” be involved in talks to end the war, but there would be a separate US-Russian strand to the negotiations.
Kremlin spokesperson Peskov also said it could take up to several months to arrange a meeting between presidents Putin and Trump, possibly in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
Peskov told Russian state TV in an interview: “One way or another, of course, Ukraine will participate in the negotiations.”
He added: “There will be a bilateral Russian-American track of this dialogue and a track that will be related to Ukraine’s involvement.”
His comments were unlikely to reassure Kyiv or allay the concerns of European governments that are demanding a place at the table, fearful that Moscow and Washington could otherwise cut a deal that undermines their security.
Russian drones hit Ukraine port
Russian drone attacks damaged port infrastructure in southern Ukraine, said officials on Thursday, while neighbouring Moldova said two drones had blown up on its soil and Nato member Romania found drone fragments and remnants of explosives at two sites.
Kyiv said Moscow attacked Ukraine with 140 drones overnight, injuring one person in the Izmail district of Ukraine’s Odesa region which lies on the Danube River and borders Romania and Moldova.
The southern region is a central hub for Ukraine’s Black Sea exports and its port facilities have been regularly attacked by long-range strikes throughout the war launched by Russia in February 2022.
Out of 140 drones, the Ukrainian air force said it shot down 85 drones and 52 did not reach their targets, probably due to electronic countermeasures.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu said two Russian drones had violated Moldova’s airspace and exploded in its territory, “putting Moldovan lives at risk”.
“Russia respects no borders, attacks civilians, spreads terror... Leave us, peaceful nations, alone,” she wrote on X.
In Romania, which shares Europe’s longest land border with Ukraine and has had drone fragments repeatedly landing on its territory, residents of the eastern counties of Tulcea and Galati were advised to take cover.
Romania scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and two of Spain’s Eurofighters currently taking part in air policing missions, the defence ministry said.
Late on Thursday, the ministry said it found drone fragments at two locations on its side of the Danube, 5km west and south of Ukraine’s river port of Reni.
Europe can’t turn Uncle Sam into ‘Uncle Sucker’, says Hegseth
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rejected criticism on Thursday of Washington’s negotiating strategy with Russia on the war in Ukraine and warned Europe against treating the US like a “sucker” by making it responsible for its defence.
“Make no mistake, President Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into ‘Uncle Sucker,’" Hegseth told a press conference at Nato headquarters in Brussels.
Europe should be primarily responsible for defence on the European continent, he said.
In his overseas debut after taking charge of the Pentagon on 24 January, Hegseth has set off a storm of criticism in Europe after announcing on Wednesday that a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was unrealistic and the Trump administration does not see Nato membership for Kyiv as part of a solution to the war triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion. DM