A new round of Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November: the dates are agreed, everything else isn't

The US has confirmed that the new round of peace talks between Russia, Ukraine and the US will be held on 10 and 11 November in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The dates were announced by US special envoy Steve Witkoff. After months of stalemate, this is a new attempt by Donald Trump's administration to get talks on ending the war moving - the last US-mediated trilateral talks were held in February.

The US delegation is to be led by Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and one of his chief negotiators. Possible new talks were already being discussed on 21 October, when Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg. After the meeting, Putin's adviser Yuri Ushakov said Moscow was in principle ready to continue trilateral talks during November.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky backed the initiative and announced on 23 October that the negotiating teams would meet in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November. "The plan is to meet in the first half of November, and the sooner the better, of course," he said at the time, adding that after the delegations' talks he would also like a meeting of leaders. But on 28 October Moscow warned that everything would depend on the situation on the battlefield - and on the conflict in the Middle East.

Here's the most interesting part. Before Abu Dhabi, US negotiators are due to meet representatives of France, Germany, the UK, the European Union and NATO in Brussels - on security guarantees for Ukraine, Europe's future security architecture and the country's post-war reconstruction. But the Europeans won't be sitting at the table in Abu Dhabi itself. The Kremlin has said before that the participation of European representatives has not been agreed. Europe will discuss guarantees and reconstruction in Brussels, and wait for news from the corridor about the end of the war itself. The Balkans have known this scene since the Congress of Berlin - when your fate is decided at a table you're not sitting at.

And the differences aren't small. Russia wants Ukraine to accept its territorial demands, give up NATO membership and agree to limits on its armed forces. Moscow claims four Ukrainian regions it has declared part of Russia, even though it doesn't fully control them militarily. Kyiv refuses to hand over more territory and warns that a deal without firm guarantees would only give Russia time to prepare a new attack. Zelensky has said before that any deal must also include funding for the Ukrainian army for at least ten years.

Even the sequence is disputed. Kyiv wants a ceasefire first, as a step towards a peace deal. Moscow insists the broader political and security issues be agreed first, and only then should the fighting permanently stop. In Abu Dhabi the talks are meant to cover the conditions for ending the war, security arrangements, de-escalation of the conflict and humanitarian issues.

For the first time there are concrete dates - and that's all that's concrete so far. There are no signs that Russia and Ukraine have moved closer on the key issues. It remains to be seen whether Abu Dhabi will bring the two sides' demands closer, or be just another meeting whose terms are dictated by the battlefield.