Russia Names Medinsky to Lead Delegation for Abu Dhabi Ukraine Talks
Russia has named the team it will send to US-mediated peace talks with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi next week, confirming a senior mix of diplomats, military officers and intelligence officials for the first trilateral meeting of its kind since February.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced the composition of the delegation on Saturday, 7 November, in remarks to the Interfax news agency. The talks are scheduled for Tuesday, 10 November, and Wednesday, 11 November, in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, with the United States acting as mediator.
A senior team, led by Medinsky
Presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky will again lead the Russian negotiating team, as he did in earlier rounds of talks. He will be joined by two deputy foreign ministers, Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, in a delegation that deliberately blends diplomacy, military planning and intelligence.
Ryabkov joins this negotiating format for the first time. He oversees Russia’s relations with North and South America and is responsible for arms control, non-proliferation and issues linked to Iran’s nuclear programme. Galuzin has taken part in past missions.
The military side of the delegation includes Igor Kostyukov, chief of Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, and Yuri Zhigarlovsky, a senior General Staff officer. Zhigarlovsky is a deputy head of the General Staff’s Main Operational Directorate, the body responsible for military planning and operations. The group will work under the supervision of Yuri Ushakov, President Vladimir Putin’s foreign-policy aide.
Putin met the delegation members on Friday, 6 November, at a meeting of Russia’s Security Council that was partly devoted to the forthcoming talks, according to reports of the session.
Kyiv and Washington line up their teams
Ukraine’s delegation is expected to be led by Rustem Umerov, head of the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service, according to David Arakhamia, the parliamentary leader of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party. Arakhamia said the Ukrainian team would also include Kyrylo Budanov, Serhii Kyslytsia and presidential communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn.
Neither Kyiv nor Washington has yet published a formal roster. US special envoy Steve Witkoff announced the planned talks on Monday, and reports say he is expected to lead the American effort alongside Jared Kushner, although no official list has confirmed either name.
The meeting follows preparatory diplomacy this week. US negotiators met representatives from France, Germany, the UK, the EU and NATO in Brussels on 4 November to discuss security guarantees and Europe’s post-war architecture ahead of the Abu Dhabi sessions.
Low expectations after months of stalemate
The resumption of trilateral talks is a significant diplomatic development, but expectations of a breakthrough remain cautious. Fighting continues, and the core disputes that have stalled previous rounds — ceasefire terms, territory and security guarantees — remain unresolved.
Kyiv has said the talks could open the way to a leaders’ meeting, but insists any deal must include robust security guarantees and rejects negotiated territorial concessions or a prescribed neutrality. Moscow, for its part, has announced no preliminary concessions.
The two-day format will test whether technical negotiations can narrow those gaps. What happens in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November will show whether the first trilateral meeting in nine months can produce more than a date for the next one.
