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US army secretary Dan Driscoll is holding talks in Abu Dhabi with Ukraine’s military intelligence chief and a Russian delegation as Washington pushes for a deal to end the Kremlin’s war.
Driscoll and the Russians began talks on Monday night, according to a US official and two people familiar with the meeting. The discussions were scheduled to continue on Tuesday.
The composition of Russia’s delegation was not immediately clear. But Driscoll was expected to meet Kyrylo Budanov, the chief of the Ukrainian defence ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), according to two people familiar with the situation. The GUR did not respond to requests for comment.
The meeting in Abu Dhabi comes after progress over the weekend in talks between Ukrainian and US delegations in Geneva. The US army secretary was also involved in negotiations in the Swiss city.
“Driscoll has been involved with this peace process pretty hot and heavy in the past few days,” said the US official, referring to the talks with Ukrainian officials in recent days. “He’s been obviously very involved, so he’s able to kind of communicate that piece” to Russia.
“Obviously, Ukraine knows what’s going on, they knew where he was coming” after Geneva, the US official said.
The talks in the UAE follow days of high-stakes meetings in Kyiv and Geneva during which Driscoll delivered the Trump administration’s contentious 28-point peace plan to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The negotiations in Geneva yielded a new 19-point peace deal more favourable to Kyiv. But it left the most politically sensitive elements — which include territorial issues and relations between Nato, Russia and the US — to be decided by the countries’ presidents, according to Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister Sergiy Kyslytsya.
The US official added that secretary of state Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, went their “separate ways to continue those pieces on their end. The nice thing about adding Dan Driscoll to this process is you’re adding to, not taking away, so he’s able to continue conversations and things like that.”
“Just like secretary Rubio said yesterday, we’re going to continue this 24/7, all effort, we’re trying to move as fast and aggressively as possible.”
It was unclear whether the three sides in Abu Dhabi were meeting together or talking separately.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the Abu Dhabi talks.
Budanov has overseen some of Ukraine’s most audacious attacks on the Kremlin’s army and covert operations inside Russia including assassinations and long-range drone strikes. He and the GUR have maintained one of the few open lines of communication with Russia during the war, enabling the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war and discussion of other issues.
In a presidential decree signed on Saturday, Zelenskyy appointed Budanov as one of nine members of his official delegations granted authority “to participate in the negotiation process” with the US and Russia to achieve “a just and lasting peace”.
In his evening address on Monday, Zelenskyy said that he had been fully briefed by Ukraine’s negotiators after the talks on Sunday and now believed the “necessary steps to end the war can become doable”.
“After Geneva, there are fewer points — no longer 28 — and many of the right elements have been taken into account in this framework,” he said.
Much work lay ahead to finalise the document, Zelenskyy added, saying that he would soon “discuss the sensitive issues with President Trump”.
The talks in the Gulf state come as Moscow targeted energy infrastructure and hit residential buildings in an overnight attack on Kyiv, killing at least six people and injuring 13 others, according to city officials.
The leaders of the UK, France and other European countries will hold a call on Tuesday to discuss security guarantees to Ukraine in a potential ceasefire.
Since being blindsided by the emergence of the 28-point plan last week, Kyiv’s European allies have raced to support Zelenskyy and pushed back on some of its most contentious points.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday warned against a deal that amounted to “capitulation” for Ukraine, and emboldened Russia “to go further towards other Europeans and puts all of our security in danger”.
Speaking to radio station RTL, Macron added that only Kyiv should decide on territorial concessions, while the use of Russian frozen assets held in Europe should be decided by Europe.
France, the UK, Turkey and other countries would also be prepared to provide a “reassurance force” far from the frontline to provide training and security, he said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that there were no plans “at this moment” for Trump and Zelenskyy to meet in person.
“The Ukrainians have worked on language with us together, and you heard that from their delegation directly yesterday. So we feel as though we’re in a very good place,” she added.
Additional reporting by Henry Foy in Brussels and Ian Johnston in Paris
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