The United States may join new talks this week between warring foes Russia and Ukraine, with territory the remaining but major point of contention.
– Teams from Ukraine and Russia met last Friday and Saturday in Abu Dhabi in their first in-person negotiations on a plan being pushed by President Donald Trump to end the war.
– “They were going to (hold) follow-up talks again this week,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “There might be a US presence.”
– Rubio said US participation would be more junior than last week when Trump’s roving negotiator Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner joined.
– Rubio suggested that an agreement is already sealed on security guarantees for Ukraine, its key demand before it compromises nearly four years into the Russian invasion.
– “One remaining item remains – the one you’re all familiar with – and that is a territorial claim on the Donetsk,” Rubio said, referring to the eastern Ukrainian region where Moscow wants Kyiv to surrender land.
– “I know there’s active work going to try to see if both sides’ views on that can’t be reconciled. It’s still a bridge we haven’t crossed,” he said in the hearing.
– Rubio acknowledged that the issue would be “very difficult,” especially for Ukraine.
– “It’s easier for the parties engaged to find flexibility on some of these matters if they’re not being deliberated in the public on a constant basis, because it creates political pressures internally on both sides – as you can imagine in Ukraine, the notion that you would even consider a change in land,” Rubio said.
– Despite the talks, Russia has pounded Ukrainian infrastructure, leaving many residents of Kyiv without heat in freezing temperatures.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2026/01/29/rubio-says-us-may-join-new-russiaukraine-talks-