US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner open two days of mediation between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, with a senior US official saying both delegations have signalled in private that a trade of territory is possible.
The official, briefing reporters on Monday, said security guarantees for Kyiv would be a central item, including the prospect of a defence commitment modelled on NATO's Article 5. Reuters reported the briefing, and Al-Monitor and The Straits Times carried the same account.
In public the two sides remain far apart. Ukraine has demanded a return to its original border with Russia, while President Vladimir Putin wants the whole of the Donbas region, the official said.
Any territorial settlement would most likely be deferred to the end of the negotiations, after agreement on other elements such as a postwar security architecture. The official described Washington as cautiously optimistic while warning that the process would take time.
"This is the first time I feel like we see real desire on the Russian side to finish," the official said, according to Reuters.
Witkoff and Kushner could travel to Russia after the Emirati round to meet Putin, the official added. The session follows a push by Kyiv and its European backers to stay involved in the diplomacy: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flew to Berlin on Nov. 3 for talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz before the Abu Dhabi meeting, as GlobeTV reported at the time.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to the losses suffered by both armies since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 as grounds for pressing for a settlement.
The Abu Dhabi talks are scheduled to run through Wednesday.