The United Arab Emirates is playing host to negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the US today, for talks that officials say will be the first meeting attended by all three countries since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago.
Donald Trump is sending his two envoys - Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner - who are flying in from Moscow off the back of a meeting with Vladimir Putin overnight
Ukraine is sending some of its top officials, including Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's national security and defence council head, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Zelensky's office, negotiator David Arakhamia and chief of the general staff, Andrii Hnatov
Leading the talks for the Russian side are admiral Igor Kostyukov, deputy head of the Russian general staff. Russian investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev is also in the UAE and will meet Witkoff separately on the sidelines
If the negotiators from the US, Russia and Ukraine will actually be in the same room - at the table at the same time - during the talks
Whether today will produce anything concrete. Zelensky said last month that a 20-point US drafted plan to end the war was 90% ready, but sticking points remain, particularly over land
Though Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov called Thursday's meeting in Moscow "useful in every respect", we don't know what was discussed between Putin and the Americans, and how this pre-meeting will factor in to today's talks
"The Donbas issue is key. It will be discussed as will be the modality of how the three sides see it," he tells journalists via a voice message.
Speaking about the talks in Abu Dhabi - which he will be sending a Ukrainian delegation to - he says: "It's a step - hopefully towards ending the war - but different things can happen."
The Ukrainian president also says he discussed Donbas with President Trump in Davos yesterday.
According to him, the two presidents also "finalised security guarantees" for Ukraine and discussed additional air defence missiles necessary for Ukraine to intercept Russian ballistic missiles."I'm hoping for a positive result," he adds.
Russia is still pushing on territory, with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov saying that the matter should be resolved "according to the formula agreed upon in Anchorage" if there is any hope of a deal.
He is referring to the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska last August. Although no agreement was reached at the meeting, a 28-point-plan that later emerged was widely seen as being geared towards Moscow's demands.
It would have seen Russia claiming the Donetsk Oblast region, and Ukraine's army cut to 600,000 people.
Following talks with US negotiators and European leaders, an updated 20-point-plan emerged in December, which Zelensky described as the "main framework for ending the war".
The updated draft proposes a freeze on the line of contact in the east, that would create a de-militarised free economic zone.
Zelensky also made clear that any Ukrainian pull back of forces in Donetsk would have to be matched by Russia, with any free economic zone under Kyiv's administration.
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