Ukrainian, Russian and U.S. envoys met in the United Arab Emirates on Friday, the first known instance that officials from the Trump administration have sat down with both countries as part of Washington's push for progress to end Moscow’s nearly 4-year-old invasion.
The talks follow a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent days, from Switzerland to the Kremlin, even though serious obstacles remain between both sides.
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U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, left, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, second left, Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev, second right, and Trump's envoy Jared Kushner talk to each other prior to their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin, in Moscow, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talks to the media at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) in Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, Russia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, left, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, second left, Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev, second right, and Trump's envoy Jared Kushner talk to each other prior to their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin, in Moscow, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talks to the media at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday that a potential peace deal was “nearly ready,” certain sensitive sticking points — most notably those related to territorial issues — remain unresolved.
Here’s what's known and not known about the meeting:
They are taking place in the UAE's capital of Abu Dhabi. Representatives from Russia and Ukraine have already met several times on separate occasions, but this is believed to be the first time U.S. envoys will be there too — a significant step in that President Donald Trump has been pressing for a halt to the war.
The talks are an outgrowth of recent diplomatic activity, even though Russia has kept up its attacks on Ukraine and its energy infrastructure, leaving parts of the country without power amid a bitterly cold winter.
Zelenskyy met with Trump on Thursday behind closed doors for about an hour at the World Economic Forum in Davos, describing it as a “productive and meaningful” session. Trump said later that it had gone well and that both Russia and Ukraine were “making concessions” to try to end the war.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in overnight talks at the Kremlin that lasted nearly four hours.
A spokesman for Zelenskyy said there are “many different formats in these talks — sometimes participants step aside for separate discussions, sometimes everyone meets together, sometimes several groups break off by topic."
The U.S. has confirmed Witkoff and Kushner are attending. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll also is part of the team, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic process. NATO’s top general, U.S. Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich also is attending.
The Ukrainian team includes Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s national security and defense council; Andrii Hnatov, chief of the general staff; and Kyrylo Budanov, head of the presidential office.
Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Russia's delegation is led by the chief of military intelligence, Adm. Igor Kostyukov. The Kremlin later said the rest of the delegation are from the Defense Ministry as well, but did not elaborate. Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev also is attending.
The talks are scheduled to conclude Saturday.
Little is known about the specific issues to be discussed. Zelenskyy said the fraught issue of territorial concessions is a likely topic, while the Kremlin offered few details beyond calling the meeting a “working group on security issues.” Separate economic discussions will take place between Witkoff and Dmitriev, Kremlin officials said.
The sides have indicated that a possible peace deal hinges on the apparently still unresolved issue of territory. Speaking in a WhatsApp chat with journalists Friday, Zelenskyy described the issue of who would control the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine as “key.”
Russia’s bigger army has managed to capture about 20% of Ukraine since hostilities began in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of 2022. But the battlefield gains along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line have been costly for Moscow, and the Russian economy is feeling the consequences of the war and international sanctions.
In his briefing on Putin’s meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, Ushakov stressed that "reaching a long-term settlement can’t be expected without solving the territorial issue,” a reference to Moscow’s demand that Kyiv withdraw its troops from areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed in 2022 but never fully captured.
Peskov also said Friday that Moscow had already made its position clear and that Kyiv must withdraw its troops from the Donbas region.
Ukraine has been pressing for security guarantees from the West to prevent Russia from invading its territory again.
Kamila Hrabchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talks to the media at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) in Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, Russia, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, left, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, second left, Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev, second right, and Trump's envoy Jared Kushner talk to each other prior to their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin, in Moscow, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy talks to the media at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
ATLANTA (AP) — Lots of candidates pitch themselves as political outsiders. Derek Dooley goes a step further. Not only is the former football coach running for the first time, he says he did not vote for nearly two decades.
He did not vote when Republican Donald Trump was first elected president in 2016. Nor did he vote in 2020, when Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
But Dooley does not worry about that as he seeks the Republican nomination to face Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia. He insists Washington needs someone with a fresh outlook, someone who is not focused on “their own political career or their political ambitions.”
Besides, lots of people do not vote, and Dooley told The Associated Press that he wants to inspire more people to do so.
“If you’re not vigilant in exercising that right, things can go pretty sideways in our country,” he said.
Dooley’s opponents in the May 19 primary include two congressmen, Mike Collins and Buddy Carter. Although Dooley supports Trump, Collins and Carter are more closely identified with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” brand. With support from the more establishment Gov. Brian Kemp, Dooley will test whether his outsider narrative is compelling at a time when Trump’s antiestablishment movement already dominates the nation's capital.
The primary winner will be among the most important Republican candidates in this year’s midterm elections, with a chance to help the party preserve its thin Senate majority by ousting Ossoff.
Dooley is the son of legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley. Derek Dooley worked as a lawyer before he started coaching. He led the University of Tennessee but was fired after a losing record. He then worked as an assistant coach for other colleges as well as professional teams.
He stepped away from the sidelines after the 2023 season, and Dooley said coaching people from a range of backgrounds will help him connect with Georgia’s diverse voting population.
“In my 30-plus years professional career, it’s never been about me in anything I was doing,” he said. “It’s about people.”
Dooley said he got interested in politics during Biden’s presidency, when he was upset about lax border enforcement, economic policies and support for transgender athletes. He has criticized Ossoff over the same issues. Dooley said he resumed voting in 2022, when he backed Kemp for governor, and he voted for Trump in 2024.
Republican strategist Brian Robinson said “you can tell this wasn’t a guy who spent his life in politics or around politics or consumed by politics.”
Kemp was close with Dooley’s family growing up, and he endorsed Dooley for Senate, putting establishment heft behind the political novice.
“I was looking for a political outsider, and it just happened to be a guy that I’ve known for, you know, 50-plus years,” Kemp said on stage with Dooley during an event with the Atlanta Young Republicans on Thursday.
Kemp and Dooley drew cheers from many in the crowd. Several people at the event said they had not decided on their primary choice but appreciated Dooley’s outsider perspective.
The relationship between Dooley and Kemp does not impress others.
“Completely siloing yourself with the old, establishment governor is not a way to say you’re an outsider,” said Courtlyn Cook, chair of the Glynn County Republicans in southeast Georgia. She said voters will remember that Kemp and Trump have not always gotten along, a key issue when the president enjoys deep support from the party's base.
Dooley’s ties with Kemp are a target for political opponents.
Devon Cruz, senior communications adviser for the Democratic Party of Georgia, described Dooley as someone with “access to the Governor’s political machine.” Harley Adsit, a spokesperson for Carter’s campaign, called Dooley the “ultimate insider.”
Canton voter Vanessa Artigas, 53, likes Kemp and understands why some of her friends used to not vote, so she will likely support Dooley.
“I think we need to get career politicians out and get the voice of the people in,” said Artigas, who attended a local event for the conservative organization Turning Point Action.
University of West Georgia student Timothy Jackson, 19, is planning to vote for Collins because of his close ties to Trump, but is open to Carter.
“Both of them have been in Congress and so they know what it takes,” Jackson said. “Dooley is going to be hard because he’s never been in that position before.”
A Kemp-linked group funded an advertisement for Dooley last fall blaming Collins and Carter for the government shutdown, lumping them in with Ossoff.
Carter, a pharmacist, has been a political fixture along Georgia’s coast for nearly three decades. Collins is a trucking company co-owner and the son of a former congressman.
“Republicans are going to face an uphill battle, but Dooley doesn’t bring the baggage that other candidates could possibly bring and can speak not only to voters on the right and Republicans, but the voters in the center who will make the decision,” said longtime Republican consultant Jason Shepherd. “Jon Ossoff has a voting record that Dooley can run on and pick apart. Dooley does not.”
Dooley said he wants to boost workforce training and reduce home prices by cutting back government regulation. He also praised the Trump administration’s capture of Nicolás Maduro, who was ousted as Venezuela's president by the U.S. military in January, and blamed immigrants for reducing the number of available homes for U.S. citizens. Dooley promised to introduce legislation to prevent lawmakers from using taxpayer money to send campaign-related materials, which he accused Collins of doing improperly.
A spokesperson for Collins said his actions were approved by the House Communications Standards Commission, and he criticized Dooley as “a washed-up lawyer and failed coach.”
Robinson, the GOP strategist, said Dooley will need to explain to Georgians why being an outsider matters enough to earn their votes.
“It’s a well-worn path. The saliency of that message probably depends on the mood of the country and the cycle that we’re in,” Robinson said. “I don’t think we know just yet if that outsider message is what people are looking for.”
This version has been updated to correct the spelling Vanessa Artigas' first name.
FILE - Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley, right, congratulates Tauren Poole (28) after he scored in the first quarter of an NCAA college football game against Middle Tennessee, Nov. 5, 2011, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)
Derek Dooley, left, a Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, listens as Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks during an Atlanta Young Republicans campaign event Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alyssa Pointer)
A political campaign sign for Derek Dooley, a Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, is displayed during an Atlanta Young Republicans campaign event Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alyssa Pointer)
Derek Dooley, a Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, listens to questions during an Atlanta Young Republicans campaign event Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alyssa Pointer)
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, right, listens as Derek Dooley, left, a Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, speaks during an Atlanta Young Republicans campaign event Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alyssa Pointer)
Derek Dooley, a Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, listens to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, not pictured, speak during an Atlanta Young Republicans campaign event Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alyssa Pointer)
