A US document setting out security guarantees for Ukraine is fully finished, and Kyiv is now waiting for a date and place to sign it, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on January 25, 2026. Speaking at a news conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, he said: “The document is 100% ready.”

For Ukraine, Zelenskyy said, the guarantees are first and foremost “guarantees of security from the United States.” Once signed, the document will go to the US Congress and Ukraine’s parliament for ratification.

First three-way talks in Abu Dhabi

Zelenskyy’s comments followed two days of talks in Abu Dhabi on January 23 and 24, the first three-way meeting between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators with US mediators. He said it was likely the first trilateral format in a long time to include military representatives from all three sides, not just diplomats.

The talks produced no deal, but both sides said they were open to more dialogue. Zelenskyy said they covered the 20-point US peace plan and other difficult issues, adding that there were “many problematic issues, but now there are fewer.” A US official said the discussions covered a broad range of military and economic matters, including the possibility of a ceasefire before a final agreement. The next round was set for February 1 in Abu Dhabi.

Territory still the main obstacle

Zelenskyy described the two sides’ positions as “fundamentally different.” Russia continues to demand that Ukraine withdraw from the parts of Donbas that Moscow has failed to capture, while Kyiv insists its territorial integrity must be respected. There is also no agreed framework yet for overseeing and operating the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in Europe.

He said the Americans are trying to find a compromise, but stressed that every party, including the United States, must be willing to compromise. The talks came shortly after US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held lengthy talks with Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Zelenskyy also repeated Ukraine’s goal of joining the European Union by 2027, which he called an “economic security guarantee.”

Sources

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