Russia demands Donbas region before Abu Dhabi talks
Russia stated that it would not abandon its key demand for Ukraine to withdraw from its eastern Donbas region, ahead of three-way talks between Ukrainian, Russian, and American officials scheduled for later on Friday in the UAE.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said territory remained the key issue and would be on the agenda for the talks, which look set to be the first direct public negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv on a plan being pushed by US President Donald Trump to end the almost four-year-long war, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
High-level teams from the three countries were headed for Abu Dhabi for the negotiations - a day after US President Donald Trump met with Zelensky in Davos and hours after US envoy Steve Witkoff held late-night talks with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
While a diplomatic push to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II has gained pace in recent weeks, Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over the key issue of territory in a post-war settlement.
Russia, which launched its attack in 2022, said Friday it was not dropping its maximalist demand that Kyiv withdraw from the eastern Donbas region - a term deemed unacceptable to Ukraine.
“Russia’s position is well known on the fact that Ukraine, Ukrainian armed forces, have to leave the territory of the Donbas. They must be withdrawn from there,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“This is a very important condition,” he added.
Both sides say the fate of territory in Ukraine’s east is one of the main outstanding issues in the search for a settlement to a war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and decimated eastern Ukraine.
By Ulviyya Salmanli
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