US and Russia hold secret Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi

US and Russian officials have met in Abu Dhabi for several hours of secret talks over a plan to end the war in Ukraine, even as Moscow and Ukraine traded more airstrikes that left at least nine people dead overnight.

US Army secretary Dan Driscoll, who became part of the United States negotiating team for Ukraine less than two weeks ago, flew to Abu Dhabi for the meeting with his Russian counterparts over a possible peace plan floated last week that is now the subject of to-and-fro negotiations.

Residents watch their home burning after a drone attack on Kyiv overnight.Credit: AP

A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Ukrainians were also aware of the meeting. The official noted all sides had indicated they wanted to reach a deal to halt the fighting as quickly as possible.

The talks come after Trump suggested in a social media post that “big progress” was being made on a deal for Ukraine.

His comment implied that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukrainian officials, who met on Sunday in Geneva, had made advances in defusing the vehement opposition from Kyiv and its European allies to a 28-point peace proposal the White House team floated last week.

Washington is more relaxed about Trump’s November 27 deadline to secure Ukraine’s backing for the proposal but still wants to reach a deal sooner rather than later, the people familiar with the Abu Dhabi meeting said.

Firefighters put out a blaze after a drone hit a residential building in Kyiv overnight.Credit: AP

Moscow and Kyiv exchanged fire overnight with heavy air raids on Kyiv and assaults on southern Russian areas that left at least six people dead in the Ukrainian capital and three dead in Russia’s Rostov region, officials say.

Ukraine’s air defences worked to shield the capital from combined missile and drone attacks and loud explosions were heard, with authorities instructing residents to stay in shelters.

Separately, Romania scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday morning to monitor what it said were two intrusions into its airspace by drones in the east and south-east near the border with Ukraine, according to the Defence Ministry.

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Before the bombardment overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used his regular evening address to the nation to say that progress had been made in negotiations over peace proposals, which Kyiv is conducting with its US and European partners.

“Now the list of necessary steps to end the war can become doable,” Zelensky said. “Many right elements have been taken into account in this framework.” However, much remains to be done, he said, adding that the process should be conducted “with dignity”.

In the days since White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and his Russian counterpart, Kirill Dmitriev, hammered out the 28-point Trump peace plan floated last week, Ukrainian and European officials have hurried to draft a counter-offer with far less favourable terms for Russia.

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The result is a winnowed-down, 19-point plan, according to people familiar with the matter, but Russian officials have called the revised plan a non-starter.

Following the overnight strikes, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for continued pressure on Russia as well as unity among transatlantic allies to end the war. The latest attack was a “terrorist response to the United States’ and President Trump’s peace proposals”, he said on the X platform.

Bloomberg, AP

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