America just set a date for Ukraine and Russia to talk peace
2 hours ago · 3 November 2026Share
A U.S. Special Envoy meets with officials during a diplomatic visit. File photo. U.S. Embassy Ghana · Public domain
America just set a date for Ukraine and Russia to sit down together.
Abu Dhabi. November the 10th and 11th.
Stephen Witkoff, America's special envoy, posted it himself a few hours ago.
He says America will mediate working-level talks between Ukraine and Russia there. He calls it carrying out the task in Donald Trump's plan to end the war.
So what will they actually talk about? Witkoff says four things. Post-war security arrangements. De-escalation. Humanitarian measures. And further steps towards peace.
Jared Kushner is expected to be there too. He's Donald Trump's son-in-law, and he's been working this alongside Witkoff the whole time.
Here's the thing though. Russia already knew this was coming.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesperson, said back on the 23rd of October that trilateral talks were planned for the first half of November, in Abu Dhabi. Same city. Same rough timing.
So what actually changed this week? America just made it official. Exact dates, on the record.
Vladimir Putin agreed to this round after meeting Witkoff in St Petersburg, roughly two weeks before the announcement. Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Witkoff separately too, in Oslo, earlier in October. He also said he was willing to negotiate.
But willing to negotiate is not the same as close to a deal.
Zelenskyy and Putin haven't held direct talks since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. And the gap between them hasn't closed.
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The Abu Dhabi skyline under the United Arab Emirates flag. Clint Ian Pinto · CC BY-SA 4.0
Russia keeps demanding Kyiv hand over the parts of Donetsk and Luhansk that its forces haven't even captured. Ukraine wants a ceasefire along the current front line instead.
Zelenskyy made his position clear on the 25th of October. He says their security guarantees are their own, and that Russia does not get to dictate them.
That's Ukraine ruling out one of Russia's biggest demands before the talks have even started.
Putin has drawn his own line too. In a televised interview that aired on the 22nd of October, he said any trilateral talks should focus on long-term security arrangements for a final peace deal. Not what he called a short truce.
So Russia wants a lasting settlement on the table. Not just a pause in the fighting.
And America's own top diplomat doesn't sound confident either. Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, spoke at a G20 meeting of foreign ministers on the 31st of October. He said he does not know if a negotiated peace in Ukraine is even achievable.
Zelenskyy had actually pushed for this meeting to happen earlier, between the 6th and 10th of November. He wanted it sooner still. But he agreed to wait until after America's midterm elections on the 4th of November.
And now the confirmed dates, the 10th and 11th, land right after that vote.
None of this is really new ground either. The last round of US-mediated peace talks happened back in February, before America and Israel went to war with Iran.
Here's what we still don't know. What either side brings to the table beyond those four broad headings Witkoff listed. And which Ukrainian and Russian officials will actually be sitting in that room alongside the Americans.
The date is fixed now. Whether Ukraine and Russia are any closer to agreeing on anything once they get there is not.
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