Russia, Ukraine and the United States are set to hold trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi as part of ongoing efforts to end the war in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday. The meetings are scheduled for February 4 and 5.
“Our negotiating team has just delivered a report. The dates for the next trilateral meetings have been set — February 4 and 5 in Abu Dhabi,” Zelensky wrote on X. “Ukraine is ready for a substantive discussion, and we are interested in ensuring that the outcome brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war,” he added.
The announcement marks a new phase in US-brokered diplomacy and follows US President Donald Trump’s declaration of a temporary truce amid extreme winter conditions in the region. Ukraine is bracing for a severe cold snap, with temperatures expected to fall to minus 20 degrees Celsius, compounding wartime hardships as several cities face power outages and infrastructure damage.
The Kremlin later said the pause in hostilities had been requested until February 1 to create what it described as “favourable conditions for peace negotiations”. Speaking at the White House, Trump said he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed to halt attacks on Ukraine. Kyiv responded by saying it would suspend strikes only if Moscow did the same.
Following confirmations from both sides, Russia and Ukraine said they had paused attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure. “In all our regions, there were indeed no strikes on energy facilities from Thursday night to Friday,” Zelensky said in a nightly video address, adding that Ukraine remains ready to uphold the restraint.
The last recorded attack on Ukraine occurred on Thursday, shortly before Trump announced the truce. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia launched a ballistic missile and 111 drones, damaging warehouses belonging to US company Philip Morris in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Territorial dispute remains unresolved
Territorial control remains one of the most contentious issues heading into the talks. Russia continues to assert claims over the Donbas region, which Ukraine has said it will not cede. Donbas refers to the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and currently occupies parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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