Russia and Ukraine wrapped up a second day of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi on Saturday without reaching a deal, though both countries said they would meet again next weekend as Russian strikes left over a million Ukrainians without power in subzero temperatures.
Neither side announced any agreements after the talks ended, but Moscow and Kyiv both said they were open to more dialogue. Another round of discussions was scheduled for next Sunday in Abu Dhabi, according to a U.S. official who spoke to reporters after the meeting.
“The central focus of the discussions was the possible parameters for ending the war,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on X.
The U.S. official, speaking anonymously, said the parties got into detailed discussions. “We saw a lot of respect in the room between the parties because they were really looking to find solutions,” the official said. “We got to real granular detail and (we feel) that next Sunday will be, God willing, another meeting where we push this deal towards its final culmination.”
A UAE government spokesperson said the talks included rare face-to-face meetings between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators — unusual in the almost four-year war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion. The negotiators tackled “outstanding elements” of Washington’s peace framework, the spokesperson said.
The U.S. official said further talks might take place in Moscow or Kyiv before any meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskiy, or a three-way meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. “Those sorts of meetings have to happen, in our view, before we get a bilateral between Putin and Zelenskiy, or a trilateral with Putin, Zelenskiy and President Trump,” the official said. “But I don’t think we’re so far away from that.”
Hours before Saturday’s talks, Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and its second-largest city Kharkiv. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who was not at the negotiations, accused Putin of acting cynically.
“This barbaric attack once again proves that Putin’s place is not at (U.S. President Donald Trump’s) Board of Peace, but in the dock of the special tribunal,” Sybiha wrote on X. “His missiles hit not only our people, but also the negotiation table.”
Saturday had been scheduled as the final day of talks, which Zelenskiy called the first trilateral meeting under the U.S.-mediated peace process. The UAE said the discussions took place in a “constructive and positive atmosphere” and included talks about confidence-building measures.
Kyiv is under growing pressure from the Trump administration to make concessions to end Europe’s deadliest and most destructive conflict since World War Two. U.S. peace envoy Steve Witkoff told the World Economic Forum in Davos this week that negotiators had made substantial progress and only one sticking point remained. Russian officials have sounded more sceptical.
After Saturday’s talks, Zelenskiy said the U.S. delegation raised “potential formats for formalising the parameters for ending the war, as well as the security conditions required to achieve this.”
The U.S. official said the proposed security protocols were widely seen as strong. “The Ukrainians and many of the national security advisors of all the European countries have reviewed these security protocols. And to a person, and this includes NATO, including (NATO Secretary General) Mark Rutte, they have expressed the fact that they’ve never seen security protocols this robust,” the official said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russia still insists Ukraine hand over all of the eastern Donbas region, the industrial heartland that includes Donetsk and Luhansk.
Putin wants Ukraine to surrender the 20 per cent it still holds of Donetsk — about 5,000 sq km (1,900 sq miles) — which has been a major stumbling block in the talks. Most countries recognise Donetsk as part of Ukraine. Putin calls it part of Russia’s “historical lands.”
Zelenskiy has ruled out giving up territory that Russia has failed to capture in four years of grinding, attritional warfare against a much smaller opponent. Polls show little appetite amongst Ukrainians for any territorial concessions.
Russia says it wants a diplomatic solution but will keep trying to achieve its goals through military action as long as no negotiated settlement is reached.
Oleksandr Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said late Friday that the first day of talks covered parameters for ending the war and the “further logic of the negotiation process.”
Ukraine came under renewed Russian attack overnight. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 375 drones and 21 missiles in the overnight strike, which hit energy infrastructure and knocked out power and heating across large parts of Kyiv. At least one person was killed and over 30 were injured.
Kyiv had already suffered two massive overnight attacks since New Year that cut electricity and heating to hundreds of residential buildings. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said Saturday that 800,000 people in Kyiv were left without power after the latest Russian assault, with temperatures around -10 degrees Celsius.
Zelenskiy said Saturday that Russia’s heavy overnight strikes showed that agreements on air defence support made with Trump in Davos this week must be “fully implemented.”
(information from Reuters)
