U.S.-Mediated Talks Between Russia And Ukraine Produced No Breakthrough. Moscow Reportedly Made Several Demands Of Europe.

Talks between Russia and Ukraine, mediated by Washington, took place between Tuesday and Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, and although no major announcement was made regarding a temporary or permanent cessation of hostilities between Kyiv and Moscow, the talks shed light on key Russian preconditions for ending the long-running war.

The Kremlin wants its American, European and Ukrainian counterparts to agree to a ban on NATO bases in the Baltic states, the withdrawal of Finland from NATO, the incorporation of all the territory that Russia currently occupies in Ukraine - as well as any parts of Donetsk and Lukhansk Ukraine still controls - into Russia, and the demilitarization of the Ukrainian Black Sea ports of Odesa and Mykolaiv in exchange for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, the German newspaper Bild revealed on Friday.

"Such matters are in no way a matter for negotiation. Russia knows that. This is absolutely outrageous to even suggest such a thing," Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen said in response to the alleged demand, Helsinki's national broadcasting company Yle reported.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied the reports.

Despite the lack of a major breakthrough in the talks, Russia and Ukraine reportedly agreed to a prisoner exchange during the negotiations, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said would be "the biggest exchange of war prisoners" of its kind between the warring nations to date.

Following the conclusion of the talks in the Emirati capital, U.S. representatives held direct talks with both the Ukrainian and Russian heads of state.

"Following detailed trilateral negotiations with the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi, we traveled to Moscow for direct discussions with President Putin, then to Dublin to meet with President Zelenskyy," U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Jared Kushner said on X on Thursday.

According to Kushner, who is also President Donald Trump's son-in-law, the next round of U.S.-mediated will include representatives from European nations, which would allow participants to discuss the future of the security relationship between Europe and Russia "alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia."

Kushner had already made Washington's intention of mediating the establishment of "a broader European security architecture that can help establish the conditions for lasting peace [with Russia]" clear at the beginning of the month.

On Thursday, Zelenskyy welcomed the prospect of including European representatives in the talks, but European Union leaders have not decided who will represent them at the next round of discussions, the New York Times reported.