U.S. Military Secretary Dan Driscoll is in Abu Dhabi to satisfy with Russian officers, two U.S. officers and two diplomatic sources who weren’t approved to talk publicly informed CBS Information.
“Secretary Driscoll met with members of the Russian delegation [Monday night] for a number of hours in Abu Dhabi. He’s scheduled to satisfy with them once more all through the day [Tuesday] to debate the peace course of and quickly transfer the peace negotiations ahead,” a U.S. official informed CBS Information.
It isn’t clear who else is within the U.S. delegation in Abu Dhabi.
The conferences come amid an intensifying push by President Trump to safe a ceasefire within the nearly four-year-long Russia-Ukraine struggle, with U.S. officers holding discussions with envoys from each nations.
Over the weekend, Driscoll, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Mr. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and diplomats from Ukraine and European allies attended talks in Geneva, Switzerland. Driscoll’s assembly with Russian officers additionally follows a go to to Ukraine’s capital final week.
U.S. and Ukrainian officers have additionally mentioned a possible go to to the U.S. this week by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, CBS Information reported on Sunday. There are presently no exhausting plans for a go to by the Ukrainian chief.
It stays unclear how shut Russia and Ukraine are to a deal.
Final week, CBS Information obtained a draft of 1 Trump administration-backed proposal to finish the struggle. The proposed plan included a number of provisions that Zelenskyy has rejected up to now, akin to a requirement that Ukraine surrender its complete Donetsk area — together with components that are not occupied by Russia — and an finish to the nation’s push to hitch NATO.
There’s additionally an accompanying doc associated to safety ensures, in keeping with U.S. and Ukrainian officers. Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., informed “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday the doc specifies that the U.S. intends to supply “safety assurances” that she mentioned are alongside the traces of Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which commits members to come back to the protection of a NATO state that’s attacked.
On Saturday, a gaggle of NATO members and different U.S. allies launched a joint assertion calling the proposed peace plan “a foundation which would require further work.”
The White Home mentioned in a press release Sunday night time that U.S. and Ukrainian officers had “drafted an up to date and refined peace framework” following the discussions in Geneva. Rubio described one session in Geneva as “very significant” however added that “there’s nonetheless some work left to do, and that is what our groups are going to be doing proper now.”
Mr. Trump has pressed Zelenskyy to succeed in a deal by Thanksgiving, although Rubio described that deadline as versatile on Sunday.
A U.S. official informed CBS Information that Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to consider that he’ll take the Donetsk area of Ukraine someway – both by a negotiated settlement or on the battlefield. The Trump administration’s negotiations in Geneva started from the premise that Putin is right.
Whereas that very same U.S. official declined to offer a U.S. evaluation of whether or not Ukraine is dropping the struggle within the East, the U.S. official mentioned that the trajectory of the combating factors to Russia taking Donetsk. The official indicated that the Russian progress within the japanese frontline metropolis of Pokrovsk, which is a logistics hub for Ukraine, was not a constructive signal for Kyiv’s defensive prospects. Russian media typically refers to Pokrovsk because the “gateway” to Ukraine’s industrial Donbas area.
