US, Russia Meet in UAE as Moscow and Kyiv Trade Fire

Kelly Grieco, senior fellow at the Stimson Center, said that 'slow, costly gains' made by Russia may force Ukraine to make decisions on peace negotiations before the harshest part of winter sets in on the battlefield. Grieco also says that Russia has its own decisions to make, as Putin attempts to mobilize more manpower to Ukraine.

 US and Russian delegations are in Abu Dhabi for meetings as President Donald Trump cited progress on his peace proposal and Moscow and Ukraine carried out airstrikes overnight.
US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has been in discussions with Russian officials late Monday and throughout Tuesday, Lieutenant Colonel Jeff Tolbert, a spokesman for Driscoll, said in a statement. “The talks are going well and we remain optimistic,” he said.
Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, is also in Abu Dhabi for meetings, according to a person familiar with the matter. Ukrainian military intelligence didn’t reply to requests for comment from Bloomberg News. 
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had nothing to report when asked about the meeting, according to the Interfax news service. 
The talks are taking place after Trump suggested in a social media post that “big progress” was being made on a deal for Ukraine. His comment signaled that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukrainian officials who met Sunday in Geneva 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. 

US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, fresh from the triumph of the Gaza peace deal, held a phone call last month with a senior Kremlin official to suggest they work together on a similar plan for Ukraine — and that Vladimir Putin should raise it with Donald Trump.
In an Oct. 14 phone call that lasted a little over five minutes, Witkoff advised Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s top foreign policy aide, on how the Russian leader should broach the issue with Trump. His guidance included suggestions on setting up a Trump-Putin call before Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s White House visit later that week and using the Gaza agreement as a way in.
“We put a 20-point Trump plan together that was 20 points for peace and I’m thinking maybe we do the same thing with you,” Witkoff told Ushakov, according to a recording of the conversation reviewed and transcribed by Bloomberg.
To read the full transcript of the call, click here.
A White House spokesperson, Anna Kelly, acknowledged receipt of a request for comment and didn’t immediately respond. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn’t immediately respond to comment. 

The conversation for the first time offers direct insight into Witkoff’s recent tactics for negotiating with Russia and what appears to be the genesis of the 28-point peace proposal that emerged earlier this month – which the US has pushed Ukraine to accept as the basis of a deal.
Putin said this month he believed the US plan could be used as the basis for a peace settlement. He told senior officials at a meeting of the Russian Security Council that the 28-point plan had not been discussed in detail yet with the US, but that Moscow had received a copy of it.
At the time of the Witkoff-Ushakov call, Trump was basking in the success of his drive to end the war in Gaza. The day before, he’d become the first US president to address the Israeli Knesset since 2008 after securing the release of the final 20 living hostages held by Hamas. 
Trump’s attitude toward Putin, however, appeared to be souring. As he prepared for his meeting with Zelenskiy on Oct. 17, he was considering providing Ukraine with longer-range Tomahawk missiles, discussing fresh sanctions on Russia and voicing his frustration with Putin.
“I don’t know why he continues with this war,” Trump said Oct. 14, the same day that Witkoff spoke with Ushakov. “He just doesn’t want to end that war. And I think it’s making him look very bad.”



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