A (recent-ish) timeline of talks on ending the war in Ukrainepublished at 09:44 GMT
Image source, ReutersImage caption,
Zelensky visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort for talks just after Christmas
While we wait to hear more about today’s Abu Dhabi meetings, here’s a non-exhaustive history of recent talks on ending the war in Ukraine:
Riyadh, March 2025
Ukraine and Russia agreed to a naval ceasefire in the Black Sea in separate deals with the US after three days of talks in Saudi Arabia.
Istanbul, May 2025
Delegations from Ukraine and Russia agreed to swap 1,000 prisoners of war each after holding the first face-to-face talks with each other since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Anchorage, August 2025
A first meeting since 2018 saw Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin shake hands in Alaska – though there was little progress made towards peace.
Speaking to reporters after talks, Putin said an unspecified “agreement” had been reached, but stressed the “root causes” of the conflict need to be eliminated before peace could be achieved.
Geneva, November 2025
American and Ukrainian negotiators met in Switzerland for talks on a 28-point US-backed peace plan.
After the original draft was criticised by some as being too favourable to the Kremlin, an updated peace framework was drawn up. Zelensky said this included “signals that President [Donald] Trump’s team is hearing us”.
Image source, ReutersImage caption,
Donald Trump welcomed Vladimir Putin to Alaska for talks in August last year
Moscow, December 2025
The Kremlin said five hours of talks between Putin and Trump’s top negotiator – Steve Witkoff – had failed to produce a breakthrough, as parts of the new peace plan remained unacceptable to Moscow, including over territory.
Berlin, December 2025
A meeting between European officials and a Kyiv delegation led to the US offering Nato-like security guarantees, while Zelensky signalled for the first time that he might “compromise” on ambitions to join Nato in exchange for strong guarantees.
Miami, December 2025
Shortly before Christmas, US and Ukrainian envoys focused on aligning positions on a US-backed 20-point plan in Miami talks, while US officials also met Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
Mar-a-Lago, December 2025
Zelensky and Trump met at the president’s resort in Florida, where the the Ukrainian leader said talks on a revised peace plan were “close to 95%” done.
Davos, January 2026
Zelensky declared that peace talks had reached “the last mile” after he met Trump on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, where he said the pair reached agreement on post-war security guarantees.
