Ukraine and Russia reportedly show 'a little bit of flexibility' on territory as Abu Dhabi talks begin

Ukraine and Russia have privately shown "a little bit of flexibility" over disputed territory, US media reported, citing a senior American official, as a new round of talks aimed at ending Moscow's war begins in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

The comments came as US President Donald Trump suggested Ukraine could emerge from the war with "a little bit different shape", without specifying which territorial changes he envisaged.

Moscow demands that Ukraine recognise Russian control over Crimea and the four regions it claims to have illegally annexed - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson - and withdraw its forces from all four regions, including areas Russia has never occupied. Kyiv rejects these demands.

The US official offered no details of the reported flexibility, but cautioned that territorial disputes could not be resolved without agreement on post-war security arrangements.

"They will not solve the Donetsk issue and the territorial issue until they know what the security architecture is going to be after the war," the official said.

Ahead of the talks, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would propose steps to reduce hostilities in Abu Dhabi and seek agreement on how to arrange a trilateral meeting between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and the US.

"At the meetings in Abu Dhabi, our team will propose de-escalatory steps, and there must be an understanding of how to arrange a trilateral meeting at the leaders’ level to bring this war to an end fairly and for real," Zelenskyy wrote on X.

The negotiations opened on Tuesday with a meeting between Ukrainian, American and European representatives, ahead of the first trilateral talks involving Kyiv, Moscow and Washington since February.