Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
About a week before expected negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the US return to Abu Dhabi, Moscow is managing the diplomatic optics.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that President Vladimir Putin is “open to dialogue with everyone,” when asked if Putin would pick up the phone if French President Emmanuel Macron or the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz or called.
However, when Peskov was asked if Putin would answer a call from Ukrainian President Zelensky, Peskov’s answer narrowed to one line: “So far, nobody has called.”
The wording is familiar. For months, Moscow has argued that it is Kyiv, not the Kremlin, that is standing in the way of leader-level contact, while continuing to question whether Zelensky has the legal authority to sign a settlement.
Peskov made the comment in an interview with the Russian program Yunashev Live, as the three governments brokering the peace track prepare for a fresh round in the United Arab Emirates.
Abu Dhabi talks loom
The remarks land as Washington, Moscow and Kyiv prepare a new round of trilateral meetings in Abu Dhabi. Zelensky said last week that he hoped the next session would take place “in the first half of November, and as early as possible,” with November 6 to 10 the working window and US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff among the Americans expected in the room.
Earlier rounds in Abu Dhabi ended without a published agreement, and Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on the status of the Donbas, the contested industrial region in eastern Ukraine.
No new conditions
Peskov did not announce any new conditions or concessions, and he did not explicitly confirm that Putin would accept an incoming call from Zelensky specifically, only that none had come. He also repeated Moscow’s standing line that Russia considers Zelensky’s legitimacy open to question, an argument tied to his wartime term, which Ukraine says continues under martial law barring elections.
The next concrete step is the Abu Dhabi meeting in early November. The Kremlin has confirmed only a three-party format for that round, with no European participation.
