Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
Two days of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi closed Wednesday with one line from Russia’s chief negotiator that will be read closely in every European capital.
Russia’s lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky set out Moscow’s hard line on territory as the second day of trilateral talks wrapped up on November 11, Kyiv Post reported.
“Every inch of Russian land will be returned to Russia, one way or another,” Medinsky told reporters, declining to specify which territories he meant.
The talks, mediated by President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, were the first trilateral meeting between Washington, Kyiv and Moscow since the round in February 2026, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Medinsky praised the American side as sincere and effective, and said Moscow was grateful for the envoys’ work. He urged European governments to learn from what he described as the Americans’ realism and desire for peace.
A prisoner swap sits alongside the hard line
Medinsky also said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a large exchange of prisoners of war, with the final parameters to be announced soon.
At a press conference, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a potential exchange could take place in a 1,000-for-1,000 or 1,500-for-1,500 format, the Kyiv Independent reported.
Zelensky described the opening day of talks as “constructive and quite substantive,” citing a report from the Ukrainian delegation.
What ‘every inch’ could mean
Russia occupies roughly 20 percent of Ukraine, including Crimea and parts of eastern Donbas, as Al Jazeera noted ahead of the talks.
Moscow has focused its demands on Ukraine’s withdrawal from Donbas, a demand Kyiv has rejected, The Moscow Times reported ahead of the talks.
Medinsky’s “every inch” phrasing goes beyond those occupied areas. It will be scrutinized in Baltic, Polish and Nordic capitals, where officials have voiced long-running concerns about the shape of Moscow’s territorial ambitions.
On European security more broadly, Medinsky said any settlement would require a comprehensive overhaul, “a Band-Aid won’t be enough,” he said, according to Kyiv Post. He added that Ukraine could join the European Union but not NATO.
Europe left on the margins
The Russian delegation held no direct meetings with European representatives in Abu Dhabi, and Medinsky questioned their status, Kyiv Post reported.
Delegations from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission were present on the sidelines but not in the trilateral format itself.
Zelensky has insisted that European security must be discussed with European nations in the room. Kyiv is pushing for a decision on European representation by the end of November, with a possible decision at a Nov. 19 meeting of the coalition of the willing in Germany, a separate Kyiv Post report from the second day of talks said.
The Abu Dhabi round ended without a dated ceasefire and without a joint statement on territory, leaving the prisoner swap as the one concrete deliverable from the two days of meetings.
