Actually, I can’t take too much credit for this one; it was really a no-brainer.
Yesterday, under the heading “Fiddling While Ukraine Burns,” I predicted that this week’s trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on the war in Ukraine would not amount to much. I said that the parties would probably describe the meetings as “substantive” and “constructive”; that they might schedule the next round of talks; and that the attacks and counterattacks would continue unabated.
Following yesterday’s four-hour session, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described it as . . . wait for it . . . “constructive and quite substantive.” [Bassam Hatoum, Associated Press, November 10, 2026.]
And U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking from Paris where he was attending the Group of Seven meeting, commented on the U.S. (i.e., Donald Trump’s) push to end the war:
“It looks like the talks in Abu Dhabi were very productive. There’s a lot of work to be done in that regard. It’s not like something that’s on the verge of being solved in the next 24 hours or anything like that.” [Id.]
Actually, Trump had promised to solve it in the first 24 hours of his second term, but oh well . . .
As for my other forecast — that there would be no pause in the war during the peace talks — that too was an easy call. Vladimir Putin has made it painfully clear that he has no intention of entering into a ceasefire before there is a peace treaty in place, his rationale being that any such ceasefire would only give Ukraine time to regroup . . . as though he wouldn’t also do just that.
So yes, the attacks continued throughout Tuesday, with Russian strikes on civilian targets that included an aid/shelter site, Ukraine’s power grid, and residential areas, causing heavy casualties. Ukraine, of course, retaliated with drone attacks targeting major Russian military and energy infrastructure.
A second round of talks is scheduled today, though the outlook isn’t any more optimistic for any sort of breakthrough. But, again, we’ll see.
Just sayin’ . . .
Brendochka
11/11/26
