U.S.President Donald Trump has expressed optimism over efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying both countries are showing growing willingness to reach a peace agreement ahead of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi.
Trump made the remarks while speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, as officials from Russia, Ukraine and the United States prepared for two days of negotiations scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
He said both countries were becoming exhausted by the conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“We’re also seeing a very strong inclination to end Russia and Ukraine,” Trump said, adding that his administration was involved because he wanted to see an end to the killings.
His comments followed an assessment by a U.S. official that Moscow and Kyiv were privately showing some flexibility over a possible territorial agreement, Reuters reported.
However, a senior Ukrainian official rejected suggestions that Kyiv was considering territorial concessions, saying any discussion on the matter would have to involve national leaders and appropriate security guarantees.
Russia has continued to demand that Ukraine surrender the entire eastern Donbas region, including territories its forces have yet to capture.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said recent battlefield gains and increasing Russian losses had strengthened Kyiv’s negotiating position ahead of the talks.
In his nightly address on Monday, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian troops were improving the country’s position and urged Washington to persuade Moscow to end the war.
The Abu Dhabi meeting will mark the first trilateral negotiations involving the United States, Russia and Ukraine since February.
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to lead Washington’s mediation efforts, with postwar security guarantees for Ukraine likely to feature prominently.
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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said discussions had made progress on a possible postwar security framework for Ukraine and Europe.
“Nothing’s been finalized yet, and maybe some progress can be made in Abu Dhabi,” Rubio said on Sunday.
The renewed diplomatic efforts come amid continued fighting and growing concerns over Russia’s military casualties.
Belarusian Cyber Partisans, an opposition-linked hacking group, claimed that its analysis of data allegedly obtained from Russia’s state statistics agency identified 393,881 deaths linked to military operations or their consequences between 2022 and August 2026.
The group said its findings were based on death records specifically coded as resulting from hostilities or their consequences. However, it acknowledged that the figures could include civilians and deaths associated with other conflicts.
It also noted that the estimate excluded military personnel who remain missing but have not been officially declared dead.
Russia’s state statistics agency, Rosstat, acknowledged being targeted by cyberattacks but denied that its databases had been compromised, according to Russian media outlet Kommersant.
The hackers’ claims and the underlying dataset have not been independently verified in full.
Separately, the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that between 400,000 and 450,000 Russian military personnel were killed between February 2022 and June 2026.
The think tank said the upper estimate would represent more than nine times the combined Soviet and Russian military fatalities in wars since World War II.
The Moscow Times, citing a broader analysis of the leaked records, reported that approximately 450,000 war-related deaths would make the conflict Russia’s fourth most common cause of death since 2022.
The newspaper said it had cross-checked a sample of the names but could not independently verify the entire dataset.
CNBC
