By Steve Holland, Humeyra Pamuk and Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Washington was seeing a “very strong inclination” towards ending Russia’s war in Ukraine and that both sides were “tired of fighting.”
“We’re having a very good conversation about that in Abu Dhabi,” Trump told reporters at the White House on the eve of US-led, three-sided talks scheduled in Abu Dhabi.
Trump had vowed to end the conflict when he took office in January 2025 but the goal to end the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 has remained elusive.
“We’re also seeing a very strong inclination to end Russia and Ukraine (war). We’re involved in that,” Trump told reporters.
Both Russia and Ukraine were showing some flexibility privately on the possible exchange of territory ahead of the talks in Abu Dhabi this week, a US official said earlier on Monday.
The official, briefing reporters ahead of talks that begin on Tuesday, said security guarantees for Ukraine will be a major topic for the discussions, including the potential for a NATO-style Article 5 defense for Kyiv.
Both Ukraine and Russia have been adamant about territory. Ukraine wants Russia pushed back to the original border between the two countries, while Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to obtain all of the Donbas region.
But the US official said both sides are privately showing some potential for a compromise. Any territorial agreement would likely come at the end of negotiations once other items are agreed upon, including a postwar security architecture, the official said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Ukrainian battlefield successes and mounting Russian losses were strengthening Kyiv’s position in negotiations.
The talks will be the first since February aimed at bringing closer an end to the war, which has now been going for more than 4-1/2 years.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are to lead US mediation efforts in the Abu Dhabi talks, which are scheduled for two days. The official said it was possible the envoys would travel to Russia at some point after the talks in order to meet with Putin.
While noting that the negotiations would take some time, the official said there was cautious optimism on the US side that progress can be made.
Zelenskiy has clashed with Trump in recent weeks over decisions by the US president to buy Russian diesel, suspend some sanctions and call on Kyiv to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries. Trump has also called for Zelenskiy to be replaced.
The 1,200-km (775-mile) front line in the war has remained fairly static for many months, with Russian forces holding about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Humeyra Pamuk and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Bill Berkrot and Lincoln Feast.)
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