Name: Zelensky hopes first Ukraine, Russia and US talks are 'step towards ending war' | BBC News
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We start with peace talks and the war in Ukraine.

Top negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the US Are heading to Abu Dhabi today.

It's the first time all three will have met since Moscow's full scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago.

In the past hour, President Zelensky confirmed that territory will be discussed as part of those talks.

Trump's envoys held talks in Moscow, which the Kremlin called useful but very frank.

Mr. Trump, who on Thursday met Ukraine's President Zelensky in Davos, has said a deal is reasonably close.

Our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg has more speeding to the Kremlin, the US Envoys.

You can see why Vladimir Putin appreciates Donald Trump.

He sends his emissaries here to discuss Ukraine and show respect for Russia.

And President Putin has just been invited onto Donald Trump's new Board of Peace for settling global conflict, even though he is waging a war.

Then there's Greenland, where Donald Trump's quest to take control has allowed Russia to argue that it has the right to do what it wants.

In Ukraine, you see, one country can take anything if believes that it is in their favor of their security.

Why wouldn't we do the same if we believe that it is in favor of our security?

That's why we make what we do in our favor.

And there is another advantage the Kremlin will have identified from the whole Greenland saga, and

that is the tension it has sparked between America and her traditional allies in Europe.

It's been sowing division in the Western alliance, and that suits Moscow just fine.

So you might think that Donald Trump would be rather popular right now with Russians, not especially on the streets of Moscow.

Most of the people we spoke to were suspicious of America's president and ready to give him the cold shoulder.

He does one thing one day, the opposite thing the next.

Svetlana says watching Trump is like being at the circus or the theater.

Oleg says the kind of things he's doing, the same could be done to us.

Juliana tells me to begin with, I thought he was.

But Trump's aggressive approach to Venezuela, that was incomprehensible.

But the Kremlin isn't criticizing the US President.

Moscow is enjoying the cracks that have appeared in transatlantic relations due to the course Donald Trump has chosen.

Any fracturing of the Western alliance is seen here as making Russia stronger.

Well, let's go live to Kyiv now and speak to our correspondent there, Sarah Rainsford.

So, Sarah, the first trilateral talks between these countries, what's expected this time around?

Yeah, the first trilateral talks, although we don't know whether all three sides will be around exactly the same table at the same time, there's a lot that's still, still in doubt.

But certainly I think Ukraine is seeing this as a tiny step forward.

Kiev has certainly engaged in Donald Trump's efforts to bring peace here to this country because Ukraine wants peace more than anyone else.

But it is pretty skeptical that Vladimir Putin is as committed to ending his full scale invasion of this country.

So I don't think there's huge expectations from this meeting.

I think what Ukraine hopes will be discussed is the issue of security guarantees for this country, something a deal it believes it's already hammered out with the United States, which is all about what to do if Russia invades again in the future, what the United States will do in terms of military support for Ukraine.

So with Washington and Kyiv believing there's some kind of deal on that, what will Russia actually say when it's presented with that deal?

And then of course, there is the massive issue of, of territory.

Russia is still insisting that it wants to take from Ukraine parts of the eastern Donbas region that it has failed to take through fighting on the battlefield.

It's paid a massively high price for holding on to that territory.

And there's no way that Ukraine intends to hand it over now.

So huge sticking points, a lot of tension.

But I suppose at least if you're looking to the positive, there is a progress, a process of talks is taking place and it will move to a further stage today in the uae.

That's our correspondent Sarah Rainsford in Kyiv there.

Well, let's now bring in Stephen Blockmans, senior fellow at the center for European Policy Studies.

As we heard there from Sarah, the talks are going to focus on security guarantees and territorial issues.

They're not shying away from the big sticking points, are they?

Well, these are still the big issues that need to be dealt with, if we can believe at least Mr.

Trump, who says that 90% of all other concerns have been dealt with.

We heard just from your reporter in Kyiv those points.

I mean, the de facto loss of occupied regions on the side of Ukraine is already a big ask.

But to make it a further concession for Russia and that's the key issue there, isn't it?

Because we have seen, I think we might have lost the line to Stephen Blockman's.

So I think we've managed to get you back.

So I think the line just froze there a minute.

But you're talking about possible compromises from Russia.

Because the point has been that where Ukraine has been willing to negotiate compromise over the last few years, Russia has not moved from its main points.

Putin's statements, that over his Christmas or New Year's resolutions, for example, that total victory is within reach for Russia, that he will back down from those.

Trump, of course, and that has strengthened his own hand.

What, if anything, could move the dial here when it comes to reaching a peace deal in Ukraine?

Well, severe losses on the Russian side haven't helped.

I think it's ultimately up to, you know, international pressure and really isolation of Russia.

Putin to join a board of peace breaks his isolation that the Europeans have tried to maintain in support of Ukraine.

So unless there's really an American shift on this, I don't see this going anywhere in 2026.

On Thursday, we saw President Zelensky being critical of European countries, saying that they're not doing enough to support Ukraine.

The eu, we understand, is not part of these negotiations that will be happening in Abu Dhabi.

Well, the EU as an organization is of course crucial in securing a final deal as far as the lifting of sanctions on Russia is concerned, for example, but

European nations leaders, including Keir Starmer or indeed Emmanuel Macron and others, they have been working on the sidelines of the US Led peace process, trying to influence it as best as they could.

Cooperation, of course, with Ukraine, but an institutional representation is not there.

It will have to be recognized at one point, probably latent to that process to secure the type of concessions that Mr.

Trump cannot, or Ukraine, for that matter, cannot deliver themselves.

Stephen Blockmans from the Centre for European Policy Studies, thank you for joining us on BBC News.