Abu Dhabi (AFP) - US envoys will meet separately with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday as they seek to seize “openings” from two days of talks in Abu Dhabi on ending the Ukraine war.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will travel first to Moscow to meet the Russian president, before flying to to Dublin – where Zelensky will attend European meetings – to debrief the Ukrainian leader.

The countries agreed in Abu Dhabi to a major prisoner exchange – the “biggest” ever, according to Kushner – though no side gave any figures.

But the talks – the first since February, when the US war in Iran halted diplomacy – also revealed deep splits over the role Europe should play in future talks.

All sides talked up progress and said talks would continue, though Ukraine’s top negotiator Rustem Umerov said “significant differences remain”.

Kushner said the meeting with Putin would “go over what was discussed today and try to make more progress on some of the issues that we discussed because we see some openings and some opportunities”.

With Zelensky, the pair will “further explore some of the ideas that we came up with here today”.

Umerov said that there was “still a lot of difficult work ahead, but there are opportunities to continue the negotiation process.”

Russia’s delegation chief Vladimir Medinsky told reporters the “discussion will certainly continue”.

But he questioned including Europe in the talks.

“We don’t really understand what there is to talk about with them. We have not received a single peace initiative, not one concrete proposal from the European countries,” he said.

Ukraine wants more involvement from its key European backers.

Kushner said seeking ways to “get the Europeans added to the format” would be on the agenda with Putin.

Officials from Britain, France, Germany and Italy, as well as NATO and the European Union travelled to Abu Dhabi for meetings on the sidelines.

- Five years of war -

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed since Russia invaded in February 2022, in what has become Europe’s worst conflict since World War II.

Millions more have fled the fighting in eastern and southern Ukraine, large swathes of which have been destroyed by relentless aerial bombardments.

Russia is demanding Ukraine withdraw from parts of eastern Ukraine it still controls, and wants a sweeping deal on “Europe’s security architecture” as part of any agreement to halt the war.

That is widely seen as a reference to Moscow’s long-standing demands to push back the NATO military alliance in eastern Europe, and end Western military support to Kyiv.

Kyiv says a ceasefire must come before any discussions on territory and has called for a direct meeting between Zelensky and Putin to discuss the biggest issues.

Putin has ruled that out. The Kremlin has flippantly invited Zelensky to Moscow if he wants to meet the ex-KGB spy.

- European security -

Kushner said the talks had helped, but declined to say on what areas the two sides may be able to agree.

“Some areas we see places where we can find compromises, others we need to have more discussions, but I think this was a good first step,” he told reporters.

He also urged Europe to “identify one person to speak on their behalf” in the negotiations.

Europe has been rattled by US President Donald Trump’s proposal for a deal with Russia on rewriting European post-war security, worrying that Washington will force Kyiv to accept a peace that heavily rewards Moscow.

Kushner on Tuesday said the United States hoped to “create a new framework” of security between Ukraine, Russia and Europe that will secure “decades, if not centuries, of peace”.

Ukraine has insisted Russia end hostilities before any discussion on a future security arrangement for Europe, and warned against a “Yalta 2.0” carving up of the continent.

Germany said Wednesday that Russia must halt the war before there could be any talks on European security.

A Russian delegation source had said that settling the war was “merely one item on the agenda”, and that Moscow’s main objective was reviewing security “for the entire continent”.

In a joint statement, the Europeans, Ukraine, the United States and NATO reaffirmed their “shared commitment to a strong post-war European security architecture”.

Trump hinted before the talks that Kyiv might have to give up land, saying: “They’re going to end up with a little bit different shape.”

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