Second round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks begin in Abu Dhabi

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - KYIV —Ukrainian and Russian negotiators began a second round of US-brokered talks in the UAE capital on Wednesday, seeking to advance talks on how to end nearly four-years of conflict between the two countries.

Shortly after talks began, Russian forces struck a crowded market in eastern Ukraine with cluster munitions, killing at least seven people and wounding 15, the Donetsk region's Governor Vadym Filashkin said.

"Another round of negotiations has begun in Abu Dhabi," said Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's top negotiator, on the Telegram app. "The negotiation process started in a trilateral format — Ukraine, the United States, and Russia."

Photographs released by the United Arab Emirates' foreign ministry showed the three delegations sitting around a U-shaped table, with US officials seated at the center, including special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The first round of talks was held in the UAE last month, marking the first direct public negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.

Umerov said that teams would later meet in separate groups to discuss specific topics and would then follow up with a joint meeting to coordinate their positions.

Trump's administration has pushed both Kyiv and Moscow to find a compromise to end the four-year war, but the two sides remain far apart on key points despite several rounds of talks with US officials.

The most sensitive issues are Moscow's demands that Kyiv give up land it still controls and the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, which sits in a Russian-occupied area.

Moscow wants Kyiv to pull its troops out of all of the Donetsk region, including a belt of heavily fortified cities regarded as one of Ukraine's strongest defences, as a precondition for any deal.

Ukraine said the conflict should be frozen along the current front line and has rejected any unilateral pullback of its forces.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russian troops would keep fighting until Kyiv made "decisions" that could bring the war to an end.

Russia currently occupies about 20% of Ukraine's national territory, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region seized before the 2022 invasion. Analysts say Russia has gained about 1.5% of Ukrainian territory since early 2024.

Related Article

Human Rights Watch director resigns in protest over blocked report on Palestinian rights

"Russia is not winning its war against Ukraine," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told online media outlet Liga on Tuesday, arguing that Moscow was paying a heavy price in terms of battlefield casualties and economic harm for small territorial advances.

The two-day trilateral meetings come after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had exploited a US-backed energy truce last week to stockpile munitions, attacking Ukraine with a record number of ballistic missiles on Tuesday.

Zelensky said more than 200 repair crews are working to restore power in Kyiv following widespread Russian attacks targeting the country's energy sector.

More than 1,100 apartment buildings in the capital are still without power, he said, adding that he said he had spoken to officials about supporting communities in other affected parts of the country.

"As of today, the toughest situation is in Kyiv and the region, Kharkiv and the region, Sumy region, and Poltava region," Zelensky wrote on social media on Wednesday.

"It is also difficult in other parts of central Ukraine, including Dnipro and Cherkasy regions."

He added that more repair teams would be brought in to help restore power "to ensure proper rotation of crew members - people are exhausted."

Residents have been forced to spend the night sheltering in Kyiv's metro stations, with some pitching tents on the platforms to protect them from the freezing cold.

Authorities have set up centers around the city for people to go to warm up. They are also importing more generators to cope with longer blackout periods as engineers try to fix the damage.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, a power plant has been damaged beyond repair.

Ukraine's Energy Minister, Denys Shmyhal, said the country's energy system would take some time to fix. This includes Kyiv's Darnytsia Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant, which Shmyhal said had been "severely damaged".

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Russia's attacks on Ukraine's energy sector on Monday night were "barbaric" and "particularly depraved".

He made the comments following a phone call with Trump hours after Russia hit power plants and critical infrastructure in Kyiv and elsewhere. — Agencies