The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has ratified the existence of a new initiative from the United States to organize a next round of talks with Russia, again taking the United Arab Emirates as the host country, in a scheme similar to that used before Washington withdrew from the process after the outbreak of the war with Iran last February.
As the Ukrainian leader has explained, they are waiting for Washington to finalize the schedule for these talks, after "the United Arab Emirates has been suggested" as the location for the meeting, as he indicated this Friday to several Ukrainian media outlets, cited by the agency Ukrinform.
At the same time, Zelensky has offered more information about his recent meeting with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, held on the sidelines of the inauguration of the 81st United Nations General Assembly.
The Ukrainian leader has indicated that one of the central issues was the licenses for the Patriot missile systems, and has assured that Trump committed to granting the necessary authorizations for Ukraine to produce these missiles on its own territory.
"Trump emphasized that yes, he had already made the final decision. Ukraine will receive licenses for the production of Patriot missiles," Zelensky has pointed out, who has announced that in approximately ten days they will maintain new contact with Washington, after sharing the details of these talks with Russia and with European partners.
"We will inform and discuss these details with the European side, the Americans will talk with the Russians and, in ten days, we will present an opinion and a result," added the head of the Ukrainian state.
In parallel, Zelensky has warned that the current deficit of Ukraine's public accounts, which already exceeds 23 billion euros, threatens to compromise the country's ability to finance the acquisition of drones and missiles.
"There are funds for October, November, and December (...)," he pointed out, but warned that "if we do not order and pay for them in October and November, we will have serious problems in January and February," while specifying that he has already addressed this issue both with the European Union and with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Zelensky himself has detailed that the IMF "urged the European Commission to expedite the second tranche of the 90 billion euros" with the aim that Ukraine has in January and February the volume of drones and missiles that it considers essential.
Background of the trilateral dialogue
The format of three-way conversations was launched in mid-January in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and marked the first public meeting between representatives of Washington, Moscow, and Kiev since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
In the Emirati city, two rounds of dialogue were held, from which only some humanitarian agreements and prisoner exchanges emerged, before the process moved, a month later, to Geneva (Switzerland), where it ultimately became blocked due to strong discrepancies on substantive issues.
Among the main obstacles are still the control of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the security guarantees that Ukraine demands, and, above all, the debate over the sovereignty of the territories that Kiev has lost since the beginning of the war.