A second round of trilateral talks to end the war in Ukraine has been postponed for several days after a surprise meeting this weekend between Russian and U.S. negotiators in Florida.
The talks — among representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the United States — had been expected on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. But early Sunday afternoon Ukraine time, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on social media that the meetings had been moved to Wednesday and Thursday.
It is not clear why they were delayed. But on Saturday, Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy, held a meeting in Florida with Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin’s special envoy and head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.
Neither side released details of what was discussed, although Mr. Witkoff said on social media on Saturday that the meeting had been “productive and constructive.” The Ukrainians were not at the table.
“We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine,” Mr. Witkoff said.
Mr. Zelensky had suggested last week that tensions between the United States and Iran could delay the peace talks. In a speech on Saturday night, he said the Ukrainians had been regularly talking to the Americans and were waiting for them to provide details on further meetings. He did not say specifically that the talks would not continue on Sunday, but he suggested they may have been pushed back.
“We are counting on meetings next week and are preparing for them,” Mr. Zelensky said.
The first round of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi were held on Jan. 23 and 24. It was the most visible progress that Mr. Trump has made in his efforts to stop the war, which he once pledged to end in 24 hours.
Kyiv, Moscow and Washington described that first round of talks as “constructive,” an atypically positive characterization considering how tough it has been to even get negotiators from Ukraine and Russia in the same room.
Still, huge obstacles remain. Major sticking points need to be resolved before any peace deal is reached to end the war, which Russia launched with a full-scale invasion almost four years ago. The three sides have yet to agree on what should happen to the Ukrainian-controlled territory in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, or what security guarantees the country should get to protect it from future attacks.
The next round of negotiations is expected to focus on the U.S.-backed 20-point peace plan that lays out potential territorial arrangements, security guarantees and plans to rebuild the war-ravaged nation.
Russia now controls about 20 percent of eastern and southern Ukraine. Throughout the war, Russian leaders have repeatedly said that they wanted an area of Ukraine known as the Donbas, which includes all of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Russia controls almost all of Luhansk and about 80 percent of Donetsk.
As part of any peace deal, Moscow wants Kyiv to cede all of Donetsk — a proposition that Mr. Zelensky has so far refused and that could doom him politically. About 190,000 people still live in the areas of Donetsk that remain under Ukrainian control. The United States has proposed that the disputed area be run as a demilitarized zone, although it is not clear who would run the zone once soldiers leave.
There has been some progress on the other major hurdle in peace talks: security guarantees intended to ensure Ukraine’s safety if Russia were to ever again invade. On Jan. 25, the day after the first round of trilateral talks, Mr. Zelensky announced that a U.S. security agreement for Ukraine was “100 percent ready” to be signed. Details of that deal have not been made public.
While the United States and Ukraine have agreed to the plan, there is no indication that Russia will sign off. If anything, Russia has continued to push for the same goals that it has demanded throughout the war, at least publicly.
Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed reporting.
Kim Barker is a Times reporter writing in-depth stories about the war in Ukraine.
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