Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is reportedly holding discussions with a delegation from Moscow in Abu Dhabi, aiming to advance peace negotiations, according to a CBS source.
On Tuesday, CBS and ABC News reported that a high-ranking US military official traveled to Abu Dhabi for “undisclosed discussions” with a Russian delegation regarding the resolution of the Ukraine conflict. This reported gathering comes after negotiations in Geneva involving Washington and Kyiv, where a US-authored peace proposal was examined by both parties.
According to CBS, citing an anonymous American official, US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll engaged with members of a Russian delegation for multiple hours on Monday evening in Abu Dhabi, with further discussions anticipated on Tuesday, with the objective of “advancing the peace negotiations.”
ABC News corroborated this report, noting that the precise makeup of both the US and Russian delegations had not been clarified. Politico indicated that Driscoll is introducing the peace framework established during the US-Ukraine discussions in Geneva over the weekend.
Previous media accounts suggested that the preliminary US-formulated plan necessitates Ukraine remaining unaligned with NATO, ceding control over portions of the new Russian territories in Donbass currently held by Kyiv, stabilizing the front lines in the Russian regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye, and imposing a limit on the size of the Ukrainian military.
Leaders of the European Union – who were excluded from the Geneva talks – have conveyed apprehension regarding the disclosed terms, with multiple member states indicating their opposition to both territorial compromises and any condition that Ukraine forsake its aspirations to join NATO.
Russia has stated that it maintains communication with Washington and has been provided with the general contours of the plan, but has not yet had the chance to engage in detailed discussions with the US about it.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov characterized the surge of conjecture surrounding the plan as an “information free-for-all” and underscored that Moscow “refrains from public posturing diplomacy.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov alleged that EU politicians intentionally disclosed the preliminary terms, in what he claimed was an attempt “to jeopardize the understandings currently under deliberation.”
He stated that Russia prefers to proceed “in the conventional diplomatic manner, to achieve confidential agreements prior to publicizing what has been decided.” The minister further remarked, “Any alternative strategy risks exposing beneficial initiatives to criticism from those inclined to sabotage them.”