US security guarantees for Ukraine ‘100% ready’ after Abu Dhabi talks, Zelensky says

A US agreement on post-war security guarantees to protect Ukraine from future Russian attacks is ready for signing after trilateral talks between US, Ukrainian and Russian officials over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday.

Speaking at a press conference in Vilnius with Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda and Polish President Karol Nawrocki, Zelensky said the document was “100% ready, and we are waiting for our partners to confirm the date and place when we will sign it".

The agreement will then need to be ratified by both the Ukrainian Parliament and the US Congress, he added.

Zelensky also stressed the importance of Ukraine’s prospective membership in the European Union — which he said could be achieved on a “technical level” by 2027 — as an “economic security guarantee” for the country.

Delegations from Moscow and Kyiv met in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday, under US mediation for the first time since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, to discuss the White House’s 20-point plan for an end to the almost four-year-old war.

After talks concluded on Saturday, Zelensky described them as “constructive” and said Ukraine was “ready to move forward” with further discussions as early as this week, while a US official suggested an in-person meeting between Zelensky and Vladimir Putin was “very close”.

On Sunday, Zelensky said fewer “problematic issues” separated Moscow and Kyiv following the Abu Dhabi talks, but reiterated that Ukraine’s stance on its eastern Donbas region — from which the Kremlin demands Kyiv fully withdraw its troops — remained unchanged.

“We are fighting for our country, for what is ours,” Zelensky said, while Russia continued to do “everything it can to remove Ukraine from the eastern part of our country.”

“So far, they have not been able to do so on the front lines,” the Ukrainian president added, stressing that all parties, including the US, must be ready to make compromises to reach a peace agreement.