US officials said they would seek a “final end” to the war between Russia and Ukraine , beginning with trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday in the first substantive negotiations between the two countries since February.

The talks are also the first since the US launched joint strikes with Israel against Iran, and they follow bruising midterm elections that have weakened Donald Trump at home.

Part of the Trump administration’s proposal involves drawing a new “long-term security architecture” between Russia and Europe , administration officials have said.

European officials are concerned that Russia may stick to its hardline demands that Nato should roll back its military footprint across eastern Europe, which would threaten to leave allies vulnerable to Moscow’s influence at a time of historic tensions with the west.

Since his first decade in power, Vladimir Putin has complained about Nato’s eastward expansion and sought to renegotiate the balance of power between Nato and Russia – but never before…