Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in Abu Dhabi on Friday to sort out the very important concern of territory, with no signal of a compromise, as Russian airstrikes plunged Ukraine into its worst vitality disaster of the practically four-year battle.
Kyiv is underneath mounting U.S. strain to achieve a peace deal within the battle triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, with Moscow demanding Kyiv cede its complete japanese industrial space of Donbas earlier than it stops preventing.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated the territorial dispute was a central concern for the tripartite talks, together with Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. officers, which have been scheduled to conclude on Saturday.
“An important factor is that Russia must be prepared to finish this battle, which it began,” Zelenskiy stated in an announcement on the Telegram app, including he was in common contact with the Ukrainian negotiators, nevertheless it was too early to attract conclusions from Friday’s talks.
“We’ll see how the dialog goes tomorrow and what the result will probably be.”
Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s Nationwide Safety and Defence Council and the top of its delegation, stated in an announcement the talks had mentioned parameters for ending the battle and the “additional logic of the negotiation course of.”
The negotiations come a day after Zelenskiy met with U.S. President Donald Trump on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland.
Zelenskiy stated on Friday {that a} deal on U.S. safety ensures for Ukraine was prepared, and that he was solely ready on Trump for a particular date and place to signal it.
Ukraine has sought strong safety ensures from Western allies within the occasion of a peace deal to stop Russia, which has proven little curiosity in ending the battle, from invading once more.
Russia steps up energy infrastructure assaults
The tripartite talks, brokered by the U.S., are unfolding in opposition to a backdrop of intensified Russian strikes on Ukraine’s vitality system which have lower energy and heating to main cities equivalent to Kyiv, as temperatures dip effectively under freezing.
The top of Ukraine’s prime non-public energy producer, Maxim Timchenko, advised Reuters on Friday the state of affairs was nearing a “humanitarian disaster” and that Ukraine wants a ceasefire that halts assaults on vitality infrastructure.
Kyiv’s vitality minister stated on Thursday that Ukraine’s energy grid had endured its most tough day since a widespread blackout in November 2022, when Russia started bombing vitality infrastructure.
Automobiles drive alongside a street throughout an influence outage in Kyiv on Jan. 20, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sergei Gapon | AFP | Getty Pictures
Russia says it desires a diplomatic resolution however will maintain working to realize its objectives by army means so long as a negotiated resolution stays elusive.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand that Ukraine give up the 20% it nonetheless holds of the Donetsk area of the Donbas – about 5,000 sq km (1,900 sq miles) – has confirmed a serious stumbling block to a breakthrough deal.
Zelenskiy refuses to surrender land that Russia has not been capable of seize in 4 years of grinding, attritional warfare. Polls present little urge for food amongst Ukrainians for territorial concessions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Friday that Russia’s insistence on Ukraine yielding all of Donbas was “a vital situation.”
A supply near the Kremlin advised Reuters that Moscow considers an “Anchorage formulation” – which Russia says was agreed between Trump and Putin at a summit in Alaska final August – would hand Russia management of all of Donbas and freeze the entrance strains elsewhere in Ukraine’s east and south.
Donetsk is one in all 4 Ukrainian areas Moscow stated in 2022 it was annexing after referendums rejected by Kyiv and Western nations as bogus. Most nations recognise Donetsk as a part of Ukraine.
Moscow desires use of frozen belongings
Russia has additionally floated the thought of utilizing the majority of practically $5 billion of Russian belongings frozen in the US to fund a restoration of Russian-occupied territory inside Ukraine. Ukraine, backed by European allies, calls for that Russia pay it reparations.
Requested about Russia’s concept, Zelenskiy dismissed it as “nonsense.”
Zelenskiy stated on Thursday in Davos that the Abu Dhabi talks could be the primary trilateral conferences involving Ukrainian and Russian envoys and U.S. mediators because the battle started.
Final yr, Russian and Ukrainian delegations had their first face-to-face assembly since 2022 once they met in Istanbul. A prime Ukrainian army intelligence officer additionally had talks with U.S. and Russian delegations in Abu Dhabi in November.
