By Anna Pruchnicka
KYIV, Jan 23 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that the vital question of territory in Ukraine’s war with Russia would be discussed at U.S.-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday.
Kyiv is under mounting U.S. pressure to secure a peace deal in the nearly four-year-old war with Moscow, which has demanded Ukraine give up its entire eastern area of Donbas before it stops fighting.
Responding to questions in a WhatsApp media chat a day after meeting U.S. President Donald Trump for talks both leaders described as positive, Zelenskiy said the issue would be a top priority of talks.
“The question of Donbas is key. It will be discussed how the three sides…see this in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow.”
The talks will begin on Friday evening, Zelenskiy’s aide said.
Putin’s demand that Ukraine surrender the 20% it still holds of the eastern Donetsk region have proven a key stumbling block. Zelenskiy has refused to give up land that Russia has not been able to capture in four years of grinding, attritional warfare.
The Ukrainian leader added that a deal on U.S. security guarantees for Kyiv was ready, and that he was only waiting on Trump for a specific date and place to sign it.
Ukraine has sought strong security guarantees from allies in the event of a peace deal to prevent Russia, which has shown little interest in ending the war, from invading again.
Asked about using Moscow’s frozen assets to fund reconstruction on Russian territory, Zelenskiy dismissed as “nonsense” the idea of using the money to rebuild “their parts”.
Russia had previously floated the idea of using frozen assets to pay for the recovery of Russian-occupied territory inside Ukraine.
“Of course, we will fight (to use the assets for Ukraine), and it is absolutely fair regarding the use of all frozen assets (by Ukraine),” Zelenskiy said.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Daniel Flynn)
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