U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is in Abu Dhabi to meet with Russian officials, two U.S. officials and two diplomatic sources who were not authorized to speak publicly told CBS News.
“Secretary Driscoll met with members of the Russian delegation [Monday night] for several hours in Abu Dhabi. He is scheduled to meet with them again throughout the day [Tuesday] to discuss the peace process and rapidly move the peace negotiations forward,” a U.S. official told CBS News.
It is not clear who else is in the U.S. delegation in Abu Dhabi.
The meetings come amid an intensifying push by President Trump to secure a ceasefire in the almost four-year-long Russia-Ukraine war, with U.S. officials holding discussions with envoys from both countries.
Over the weekend, Driscoll, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Mr. Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and diplomats from Ukraine and European allies attended talks in Geneva, Switzerland.
Driscoll’s meeting with Russian officials follows his visit to Ukraine’s capital last week.
It remains unclear how close the two sides are to a deal.
Last week, CBS News obtained a draft of one Trump administration-backed proposal. The proposed plan included several provisions that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected in the past, including territorial concessions by Ukraine and an end to the country’s push to join NATO.
On Saturday, a group of NATO members and other U.S. allies released a joint statement calling the proposed plan “a basis which will require additional work.”
The White House said in a statement Sunday night that U.S. and Ukrainian officials had “drafted an updated and refined peace framework” following the discussions in Geneva.
Mr. Trump has pressed Zelenskyy to reach a deal by Thanksgiving, though Rubio described that deadline as flexible on Sunday.