ABU DHABI – Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday held their first U.S.-mediated talks in nine months on ending their war, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling the meeting “very productive” and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying the session was “constructive and quite substantive.”
Neither Rubio nor Zelenskyy attended the talks in Abu Dhabi, where the session lasted four hours. Another is scheduled for Wednesday.
Zelenskyy said the talks were largely about humanitarian issues, including prisoner exchanges and returning Ukrainian civilians in captivity, as well as children taken from the country. Security guarantees also were discussed.
