US officials say Putin-Zelensky meeting possible following ‘productive' talks in Abu Dhabi

An unnamed US official told Axios on Saturday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s Vladimir Putin were “very close” to arranging an in-person meeting, following two days of US-mediated peace talks in Abu Dhabi, which officials on all sides said had led to progress, but no breakthrough.

As the three-way peace talks, Moscow and Kyiv’s first under US mediation since Russia invaded Ukraine, concluded on Saturday, one US official claimed: “We are very close to a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.” 

“We saw a lot of respect in the room between the parties because they were really looking to find solutions,” one US official told Reuters, while another told Axis that, as both Putin and Zelensky had agreed to send their negotiators, it showed “they believe progress is being made”.

The delegations in Abu Dhabi included Zelensky’s chief of staff, Kirill Budanov; Ukraine’s chief negotiator and Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, Rustem Umerov; US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff; US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and Igor Kostyukov, head of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency.

“Those sorts of meetings have to happen, in our view, before we get a bilateral between Putin and Zelensky,” an official told Reuters, “but I don't think we're so far away from that”.

The talks began on Friday and continued into the weekend, with US officials holding bilateral meetings on Saturday with delegations from Ukraine and Russia, before the two sides later met without American mediation, Axios reported.

It’s unclear to what extent Saturday’s discussions were impacted by a wave of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and second city Kharkiv overnight Friday, which prompted Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, who was not present in Abu Dhabi, to accuse the Kremlin of carrying out a “barbaric” and “cynical attack”.

Following the conclusion of talks on Saturday, Zelensky described them as “constructive” on social media and said Ukraine was “ready to move forward” with further discussions, potentially as early as next week.

Russian officials also signaled progress, albeit in more tight-lipped fashion, with one telling Russian state news agency TASS that “you can’t say there were no results”.

Fighting between the two countries continued overnight on Saturday, however, with the Ukrainian military targeting Russia’s southwestern Belgorod region with its “most massive" airstrike to date, according to regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

A thermal power plant in the region was attacked at least twice, causing power outages in some parts of Belgorod, Telegram breaking news channel ASTRA reported, citing videos from local residents. 

The Russian Defence Ministry said that 52 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight, including 18 over the western Bryansk region, nine over the southern Krasnodar region, and three each over the southwestern Belgorod and Astrakhan regions.