Initial three-way talks between the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia in Abu Dhabi ended on November 11. On November 10th the delegations had been in session for four hours, and then for two hours on November 11, after which they broke. The discussion resulted in a planned exchange of prisoners much larger than such previous exchanges.

One of the main topics on the agenda was how to guarantee security for Russia and Ukraine. The EU, interested in wheedling in on these talks, had sent representatives to Abu Dhabi and had held consultations with the American and Ukrainian delegates before the talks began. The Russian delegation did not hold talks with the Europeans, noting that they didn’t understand what the status of the Europeans at this point would be. The leader of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, reiterated the Russian viewpoint that the Europeans have not yet come up with a single peace proposal ,and that they, therefore, had nothing to discuss with them. He accused them of “collective deception of the Ukrainian people.” “They finance and supply weapons to one of the warring parties,” he said, “effectively contributing to the mass deaths of civilians. So we don’t really understand what there is to discuss with them.”