What We Know About Zelenskyy's Push for a Meeting With Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday he hopes a new round of US-mediated talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi will lead to a three-way meeting of leaders that includes Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Al Jazeera. Zelenskyy made the comments standing alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin, where the two leaders held talks on diplomatic coordination, air defense and Ukraine's energy sector.

The remarks came as diplomats on both sides prepare for adviser-level negotiations that US officials say will touch on post-war security guarantees and a path toward ending the nearly five-year war.

What are the Abu Dhabi talks, and when do they happen?

The talks are scheduled for November 10 and 11, Zelenskyy said Tuesday. US special envoy Steve Witkoff announced the new round on Monday, saying the discussions would focus on "post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts, and next steps toward peace," according to Al Jazeera's reporting. The session represents the latest adviser-level exchange in a diplomatic process that has so far produced only a handful of rounds of talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives since the invasion.

What does Zelenskyy hope to get from them?

Zelenskyy framed the Abu Dhabi meeting as a building block toward direct contact with Putin, something that has not happened since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022. "We are counting on the fact that work in this format and our other diplomatic steps will open the way to a trilateral format at the level of leaders," Zelenskyy told reporters in Berlin. His Berlin visit itself was not announced in advance for security reasons, and he said on social media platform X that diplomatic coordination, strengthening air defenses and supporting Ukraine's energy sector would top his agenda with Merz.

Why does Merz say Russia isn't engaging seriously?

Asked about the upcoming talks, Merz set a lower bar for success than a Putin-Zelenskyy summit. He said it was "important that Russia finally and seriously engages in negotiations about a ceasefire and a subsequent peace agreement," adding, "I do not see that happening so far." The chancellor's comment underscores a gap between Kyiv's stated hope for a leaders' meeting and Berlin's more cautious read of Moscow's posture at the negotiating table.

Who is representing each side at the table?

The Kremlin has confirmed its participation. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian state news agency TASS that a Russian delegation would attend, led again by former Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, who has headed Moscow's negotiating team in prior rounds. Al Jazeera's reporting does not specify Ukraine's delegation lineup for the Abu Dhabi session beyond Zelenskyy's own role in setting the diplomatic agenda from Kyiv and Berlin.

What happened in Oleshky, and why does it matter?

The run-up to the Abu Dhabi round follows what Al Jazeera described as one of the most notable displays of cooperation between the warring sides since 2022. Last week, human rights ombudsmen from Russia and Ukraine oversaw a local ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky to evacuate residents and deliver aid, a mission brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump. The episode is being read by diplomats as a limited but concrete example of the two sides working through intermediaries even as direct leader-to-leader contact remains absent.

What does Europe want from the process?

Al Jazeera correspondent Dominic Kane, reporting from Berlin, said Zelenskyy and Merz projected "an element of positivity" about the Abu Dhabi meeting as a step forward. But Kane also noted that a journalist at the Berlin news conference raised the question of whether Europe would have a seat at the table in a process so far organized around Washington, Kyiv and Moscow. The Al Jazeera dispatch does not report a direct answer from either leader on that point, leaving open how European governments will be looped into talks that could eventually produce a ceasefire framework or broader peace agreement.

For now, the concrete markers are narrow: a date, November 10-11; a venue, Abu Dhabi; a Russian delegation head, Medinsky; and a stated Ukrainian goal of using the session to build toward a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin that has not occurred in nearly five years of war.