Ukrainian and Russian teams will have their first trilateral meeting with US officials in the UAE, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday.
Mr Zelenskyy said meetings would take place on Friday and Saturday in Abu Dhabi. He made the announcement after addressing at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The talks come amid increasing attempts to end the war as its fourth anniversary approaches in February. Ukraine is under pressure from the US to accept the loss of territory to Russia, which it has so far refused to do.
Moscow has seized about 20 per cent of Ukraine since 2022, including the coal-rich Donbas region and Europe's largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia.
Mr Zelenskyy also said on Thursday that Kyiv had clinched agreements on a new air defence package during meetings at the WEF.
"We are returning home with agreements on a new package of critically needed air defence for the protection of our people," he wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin began a meeting with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner late on Thursday to discuss a plan to end the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.
Mr Putin was meeting the two Americans shortly before midnight in Moscow after President Donald Trump said a deal was "reasonably close" and Mr Witkoff said negotiations had come down to one last issue.
