Russia and Ukraine hold nearly four hours of talks in Abu Dhabi, under American mediation.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Russia and Ukraine held their first U.S.-mediated talks in nine months on Tuesday on ending their war, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling the meeting “very productive” and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying the session was “constructive and quite substantive.”

Hopes for an end to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II have been tempered, however, by the lack of any significant progress in three previous rounds of negotiations earlier this year.

LEARN MORE: US-led Russian-Ukrainian peace talks to focus on security guarantees for both sides

There is no suggestion of a new posture that would lead to a breakthrough, but the circumstances surrounding the negotiations have been altered by the outcome of the US midterm elections as well as increased pressure on Russia’s war economy. Moscow is also seeking to break the will of Ukrainians as winter approaches by stepping up attacks on the country’s power grid.

Support free and independent journalism. Join the PBS News Press Pass

Neither Rubio nor Zelenskyy attended the negotiations in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The session lasted four hours and another is scheduled for a second day on Wednesday.

Delegations from Moscow and kyiv met as Washington, represented by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, renewed efforts to end the fighting.

LEARN MORE: Kremlin hopes US election shake-up won’t alter Trump’s Ukraine talks

“It seems that the discussions in Abu Dhabi were very productive,” Rubio said in Paris at the Group of Seven meeting, while calling for patience. “There’s a lot of work to be done in that regard. It’s not something that’s going to be resolved in the next 24 hours or anything like that.”

Zelensky said the discussions largely focused on humanitarian issues, including prisoner exchanges and the return of Ukrainian civilians in captivity, as well as children taken out of the country. Security guarantees were also discussed, he added during an appearance at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

A senior Ukrainian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said Ukraine and Russia had discussed a large-scale prisoner exchange, although details will be discussed in the coming days.

The three-way meeting was the first since February

The two-day session is the first such meeting since February on the war, which analysts and aid organizations say has killed hundreds of thousands of troops and thousands of civilians.

Kushner said he thought there were “some good ideas to bridge” the differences between the two sides.

Trump, whose position on the war has varied, must reckon with the arrival of Democrats in the US Congress in January after the US elections. Democrats could demand more support for Ukraine.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told ZDF television on Monday evening that “I don’t have too high expectations” regarding these negotiations.

There are no signs of the fighting easing and the talks are taking place against a backdrop of new long-range strikes from Russia and Ukraine. The two armies are largely blocked on the front line.

Russia launched 162 drones of different types and a ballistic missile into Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 155 Ukrainian drones overnight in eight Russian regions, as well as over the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Kushner says US wants to build on past experience

Kushner said in his opening speech that the goal of the talks is to “create a new framework and a new understanding that builds on the different institutions and understandings of the past.”

“We take what worked, we try to identify what failed, why we are in this position and we hope to create a new framework that will lead us to decades, if not centuries, of peace,” he said.

NATO Commander U.S. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who was also in attendance, said the U.S. delegation looked forward to “working with both sides as we seek to advance the progress we have made in the past and continue this quest to lay the foundation for a lasting peace.”

Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service who heads the kyiv delegation, thanked the United States for its efforts to stop the Russian invasion.

“Our people are waiting for the end of this war. And we hope that we will achieve lasting peace for Ukraine,” he said.

Ukrainians meet European and NATO officials for the first time

The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, expressed hope that this meeting “will allow us to move forward on the path to peace in the interests of the Russian people and the Ukrainian people.”

Umerov said the day began with a meeting between the Ukrainian team, US envoys and representatives from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission.

Russia opposed European involvement in the three-way talks, but said EU representatives could join them later.

Russia and Ukraine maintain their demands
The Russian and Ukrainian governments remain far apart on the key elements of a possible agreement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its troops from four regions of Ukraine that Moscow annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured. It also demands that Ukraine abandon its NATO candidacy and accept, among other things, strict limits on its military.

Putin wants a comprehensive peace deal on these terms and will not agree to a general cessation of hostilities, arguing that this would only allow Ukrainian troops to rest and replenish their weapons stocks.

Zelensky rejects Putin’s demands to voluntarily cede territory. It also rejects any limits on Ukraine’s military or its agreements with Western partners, which kyiv sees as essential security guarantees to prevent Moscow from invading again.

Ukraine believes that an immediate ceasefire is the necessary first step toward negotiating a broader settlement and that a direct meeting between Putin and Zelensky is the only way to resolve territorial issues. Putin rejected these suggestions.

Moscow and Kyiv sent experienced negotiators

The Russian and Ukrainian delegations include senior officials who participated in previous rounds of negotiations.

Russia’s chief negotiator is Medinsky, a Putin aide who has led the Moscow team since the first full-fledged peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in March 2022, although exploratory talks took place earlier in neighboring Belarus. The Russian delegation also includes Deputy Foreign Ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, as well as the head of military intelligence Igor Kostyukov.

Besides Umerov, the Ukrainian delegation would also include Zelensky’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov.

US says broader European security deal in the works
Last week, Trump said some sort of big deal on European security was in the works, describing it as “a big deal” that “will involve a lot more than just Ukraine.”

Kushner said Monday on X that a “comprehensive, lasting settlement will also require direct engagement between Russia and our European partners on the broader security arrangements that concern them.”

Moscow welcomed this approach.

John Leicester in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Susie Blann in kyiv, Ukraine, and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed.