"There were no pseudo-historical lectures". Kyiv assessed the new Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi
Ukraine, Russia, and the United States negotiate in the UAE on January 23, 2026 (Photo: UAE Presidential Court / EPA)

The delegation that Russia sent to the trilateral meetings with Ukraine and the United States in the United Arab Emirates has changed qualitatively compared to the previous negotiating team of the aggressor country. This was stated by Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha in an interview with the Yevropeiska Pravda media.

As for whether during these negotiations double-sided track between Kyiv and Moscow, the official said that meetings between members of the delegations had taken place.

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"The negotiations are very difficult. But we can state a qualitative change in the composition of the Russian delegation. These are different people, and there were no more pseudo-historical lectures. The conversations were very focused," Sybiha said.

According to the minister, a separate track is negotiations between representatives of the military bloc – both intelligence and the General Staff.

The UAE held "substantive conversations" on the parameters of a ceasefire or truce, the procedure for monitoring or verifying it, and on defining what "each side means by a particular term," the official added.

At the new talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, the Russian delegation was headed by admiral Igor Kostyukov, the head of the occupiers' military intelligence, the Main Directorate of the Russian General Staff. His agency is better known by its previous name, the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). The Ukrainian side reported that the Russian delegation included representatives of military intelligence and the army.

During the previous Istanbul meetings in 2025, as well as in 2022, the main negotiator of the Russian Federation was Vladimir Medynsky. He is an advisor to the dictator Vladimir Putin, head of the Russian Military History Society and former minister of Culture of the Russian Federation. The then delegation of the invaders also included representatives of the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense, including the aforementioned Kostyukov.

Member of the Ukrainian delegation, currently first deputy head of the presidential Office Serhiy Kyslytsya said after the first meeting in May 2025 that Medynsky claimed that the war allegedly was being waged only between Russians, and his delegation was essentially denied the existence of Ukrainians as a nation.

Before that, in June 2024, the Security Service of Ukraine announced in absentia that Medynsky is suspected of two charges, including encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine.

  • In the same interview, Sybiha said that Zelenskyy is ready to meet with dictator Putin to resolve the two most difficult issues of the draft US peace plan regarding territories and ZNPP.