Today, the second round of the Abu Dhabi negotiations between Ukraine and Russia opened, with a U.S. team led by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff serving as mediators. The session ran for 5.5-hours. Of some importance, Witkoff’s team included Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, as he is the U.S. official most noted for not sugar-coating matters for Kiev. When U.S. President Donald Trump first sent him to Kiev last fall, Driscoll shocked the Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his team, telling them that they had to face the military reality on the ground, and that Trump was doing his best for Ukraine, given those realities. Europe’s ‘Coalition of the Willing’ was aghast. Driscoll was then frozen out while their favorite, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, moved in. Now, Driscoll should provide Witkoff needed support in trying to hold Kiev’s feet to the fire.
Otherwise, it seems that Washington and Moscow have agreed that, if the proceedings are to be serious, they would not publicize matters nor try to exert pressure via ‘public’ negotiating. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was explicit that they do not plan to inform the public about any interim results. While Witkoff’s team refrained from commentary, Rubio reiterated that territory and security were still the major stumbling blocks. He did acknowledge that any foreign deployment into Ukraine by any NATO country, under whatever guise, was a dealbreaker for Moscow.
NATO Secretary Mark Rutte had visited Kiev yesterday pushing exactly that button. He addressed a half-empty parliament, declaring that as soon as peace was negotiated, military forces from the Coalition of the Willing would deploy to Ukraine.
