ABU DHABI — The United States opened trilateral peace talks here Tuesday by treating Ukraine's sovereignty as a fixer-upper with good bones and a difficult title history. Officials familiar with the discussions confirmed the approach. A seating chart at the summit listed the Russian delegation as the buyer's agent.
The American delegation arrived with a 40-page market analysis and a three-ring binder of satellite photos. It included comparable sales from 1991, 2008, and one waterfront transaction in Miami.
The approach was directed by Wimpy Donnie Dipshit, the former president. He ordered negotiators to treat the discussions like a short sale, according to a senior administration official.
"We've done our due diligence," the official said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the terms of a sovereign nation. "The Russian side has made a full-price cash offer with no inspection contingency. That is rare in this market."
"Sovereignty is a concept," the official added. "In the current listing environment, it's more of a negotiating tactic than a contract term." He described NATO membership as a fixture that was not included in the list price.
An internal State Department memo described Eastern Europe as an unfinished lower level with plenty of potential. It recommended removing load-bearing walls in the form of existing borders. A junior diplomat asked if the memo applied to Russia's thousand-mile border and was told not to worry about it.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected the framework during a press conference in Copenhagen. "This is not a Miami condo," he said. "These are our lives."
Zelenskyy held up a map of Ukraine and asked the American delegation to identify the seller. Neither Witkoff nor Kushner offered an answer, according to a transcript of the exchange.
He added that senior advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were welcome to return with a map, not a listing sheet. A one-page offer sheet circulated among delegates listed Crimea as a seller concession. It also proposed shared access to the Black Sea as a common-area amenity.
NATO membership was marked as a fixture not included in the sale. While delegates discussed curb appeal, Ukrainian drones struck an oil terminal near Russia's Baltic port of Luga, 1,200 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The attack cut Russian oil refining capacity by 30 percent, according to Reuters.
The drone strike, which set the port of Luga ablaze early Tuesday, was not listed on the meeting agenda. A U.S. official said the fire created a motivated seller for the Russian side. He called the timing a coincidence.
The meeting adjourned after three hours. A State Department spokesperson said the two sides had made good progress on staging. No documents were signed.
