In brief: Russia confirmed that it will join the trilateral meeting with the US and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 10-11, sending the same hawkish historian who led the delegation during summer 2025’s Istanbul talks. Ukraine previously accused the historian of threatening the Ukrainian delegation, while the Istanbul talks only resulted in prisoner swaps and no ceasefire, raising doubts about potential breakthroughs in Abu Dhabi.
Russia said Vladimir Medinsky, a former culture minister who threatened the Ukrainian delegation during the 2025 Istanbul talks, would again head the Russian delegation at the upcoming trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on Nov. 10-11.
US envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed the talks on Tuesday, saying the trilateral talks involving the US, Ukraine, and Russia would focus on “post-war security arrangements, de-escalation, humanitarian efforts, and next steps toward peace.”
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The trilateral meeting follows a renewed US push to end the war and ongoing energy discussions with Russia. Ukraine’s post-war security guarantees are believed to be a central theme in Abu Dhabi, as Finland and Norway also served as mediators in recent calls with the Kremlin.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Russia’s participation and said Medinsky would remain the head of the delegation, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
US envoys Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, are expected to join the talks, but it’s unclear who will lead the Ukrainian delegation.
Medinsky’s involvement risks repeating the Istanbul talks in the summer of 2025, when a prisoner exchange was the only tangible outcome of multiple rounds of talks.
Who’s Medinsky?
Medinsky is known as an ultranationalist Kremlin hawk who has amplified Russia’s imperialist claims in the past.
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Born in Ukraine’s Cherkasy region in 1970 during the Soviet era, Medinsky served as Russia’s culture minister from 2012 to 2020 and has been an aide to Russian leader Vladimir Putin since 2020.
Despite his birthplace, Medinsky has long associated himself with Russia and spent much of his life in Moscow.
Medinsky has long amplified Russia’s historical claims on Ukraine and rejected the latter’s sovereignty, arguing that the “Ukrainian idea” was invented by the Austrian Empire.
A 2023 opinion piece in The New York Times (NYT) asserts that Medinsky, alongside a team of assistants, was likely the ghostwriter for Putin’s propaganda literature, citing his hawkish stance and Putin’s fascination with using historical narrative to justify the ongoing invasion.
Domestically, Medinsky’s attempts to highlight Russian superiority have also caused unintended humor: In 2012, while serving as the culture minister, Medinsky said Russia survived past traumatic events because Russians “have one extra chromosome.”
Having an extra chromosome translates to Down Syndrome – or other genetic diseases, depending on the chromosome affected.
What happened in Istanbul?
In May 2025, Europe sent Putin an ultimatum: move toward a ceasefire or face crushing sanctions.
Putin responded by counter-proposing a resumption of the 2022 Istanbul format without addressing the ceasefire call. President Volodymyr Zelensky attended the meeting, intending to meet Putin, who ultimately skipped the talks and sent Medinsky in his place.
Medinsky threatened the Ukrainian delegation during the first round of the talks, according to Serhiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister at the time.
Nevertheless, multiple rounds of Istanbul talks continued throughout the summer, with the only realistic outcome being the “1000-for-1000” prisoner swap announced in May that year and similar arrangements in the following months, as the war raged on, with neither a ceasefire nor crushing sanctions.
Little prospect of peace soon
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also cast doubt on peace in Ukraine before 2027.
“I don’t know if negotiated peace is achievable in Ukraine. That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Rubio said in a Sunday press briefing. “I don’t think anyone here is claiming that we are on the verge of a negotiated settlement.”
Earlier reports also suggest both Kyiv and Moscow expect each other to break during the winter, with Kyiv claiming that it obtained detailed Russian war plans to decimate Ukraine’s energy grid by disabling up to 90 percent of all utility services in subzero temperatures, in a bid to force Kyiv toward capitulation.
A UN report has called it a possible crime against humanity.
The Abu Dhabi talks also come ahead of a potential trilateral meeting between the US, China, and Russia in Shenzhen, where Putin has reportedly proposed making the Ukraine settlement a central topic.
But Chinese leader Xi Jinping reportedly dismissed the idea, according to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who recently met with Xi.
Leo Chiu is a journalist and editor based in Eastern Europe since 2015. He has witnessed two presidential elections in Belarus and traveled widely to conflict zones and contested regions, producing reporting that bridges the gap between major developments and local realities.
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