US envoys to meet Putin, Zelensky after war talks in Abu Dhabi

ABU DHABI: US envoys will meet separately with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday as they seek to seize “openings” from two days of talks in Abu Dhabi on ending the Ukraine war.

Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will travel first to Moscow to meet the Russian president, before flying to to Dublin — where Zelensky will attend European meetings — to debrief the Ukrainian leader.

The countries agreed in Abu Dhabi to a major prisoner exchange — the “biggest” ever, according to Kushner — though no side gave any figures.

But the talks — the first since February, when the US war in Iran halted diplomacy — also revealed deep splits over the role Europe should play in future talks.