US Proposes Trilateral Ukraine-Russia Meeting in UAE, Zelenskyy Confirms
Zelenskyy confirmed the U.S. has proposed a technical-level trilateral meeting with Ukraine and Russia, with the UAE floated as venue, after his UNGA talks with Trump. Kyiv says it will return in 10 days with "either a new perspective or a result."
What happened
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday, September 25, 2026, that the United States has proposed a technical-level trilateral meeting with Ukraine and Russia, with the United Arab Emirates floated as a possible venue. "The American side has proposed... meeting at a technical level in a three-way format... We are awaiting a proposal from the United States regarding the date, and the United States has suggested the Emirates as a possible location," Zelenskyy told reporters, according to The Globe and Mail.
The proposal follows Zelenskyy's meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 22, where the two discussed ways to end the war launched by Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. After that meeting, Ukrainian negotiators sat down with their American counterparts to work through details. "We will inform and discuss these details with the European side, the Americans will talk to the Russians, and we will return in 10 days with either a new perspective or a result," Zelenskyy said, as reported by The Moscow Times.
The Kremlin, for its part, said on Friday that a trilateral meeting "could happen soon" but offered no further details. Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev met with U.S. representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on September 24 to discuss economic cooperation, according to the ground.news story summary. Earlier reports that the three parties would convene in New York proved unfounded, and the Ukrainian delegation departed the UN General Assembly before any scheduled meeting could take place.
Zelenskyy also said he asked Trump to raise the Ukraine war during Trump's talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is on a state visit to the United States. In parallel, Zelenskyy warned European partners that Russia would continue hybrid attacks against them and said Ukraine had offered assistance; the Kremlin denies being behind recent sabotage acts in European countries. The diplomatic movement comes against a grim backdrop: recent Russian strikes killed eight people in Ukraine, days after Zelenskyy appealed for sanctions on Russia at the UN. Talks on an energy ceasefire and a Black Sea grain corridor continue.
Why it matters
The proposed meeting would mark a rare direct, if technical, three-way format in a war now in its fourth-and-a-half year, and the first concrete scheduling step since the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting in New York. The sequencing matters: Zelenskyy has framed the next move as a split process, in which Kyiv briefs European partners while Washington talks directly to Moscow, and he has attached a deadline, promising to return in 10 days "with either a new perspective or a result." That puts a visible clock on the current diplomatic push and creates a clear checkpoint for judging whether the U.S. proposal produces substance or another round of inconclusive contact.
The human cost frames the stakes. Russian strikes killed eight people in Ukraine in recent days, according to the findings, coming shortly after Zelenskyy used his UN appearance to appeal for sanctions on Russia. That appeal, and the strikes that followed it, underline the gap between the diplomatic track in New York and the battlefield reality the Ukrainian delegation carried home. Meanwhile, the parallel U.S.-Russia economic discussions involving Dmitriev, Witkoff and Kushner on September 24 may shape what Washington brings to any trilateral table, and Zelenskyy's request that Trump raise the war with Xi Jinping points to Kyiv's interest in pulling Beijing into the pressure campaign on Moscow.
For European capitals, Zelenskyy's warning that Russia would continue hybrid attacks against them, which the Kremlin denies, keeps security concerns on the agenda even as ceasefire talks on energy and a Black Sea grain corridor proceed. The Kremlin's denial of involvement in recent sabotage acts in European countries remains contested, and the divergence between Kyiv's warnings and Moscow's denials is now running alongside the peace track rather than being resolved by it.
How it is being covered
The story is being carried by 98 sources, with ground.news rating 33 of them, split 36 percent left, 25 percent centre and 39 percent right. Of the rated outlets, 22 show high or very high factuality, nine are rated mixed, and one each very low and low. Ground.news flags no blindspot in the coverage, meaning no major partisan segment is ignoring the story.
What to watch
First, whether Washington sends a formal date for the UAE meeting and whether Moscow confirms attendance at the technical level, since the Kremlin has so far said only that a meeting "could happen soon." Second, what the Ukrainian team reports after its self-imposed 10-day window closes, and whether that produces a framework or another indefinite pause. Third, the state of the energy ceasefire and Black Sea grain corridor talks, which could deliver partial de-escalation even if a broader settlement stalls. Fourth, whether Trump raises Ukraine with Xi Jinping as Zelenskyy requested, and what, if anything, emerges from the U.S.-Russia economic track involving Dmitriev, Witkoff and Kushner. Finally, watch European reactions to Zelenskyy's hybrid-attack warning and any response from Moscow to the sabotage allegations it denies.
By the numbers
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