ABU DUBAI: Ukraine and Russia ended a second day of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi on Saturday without a deal but with more talks expected next weekend, even as overnight Russian airstrikes knocked out power for over a million Ukrainians amid subzero winter cold.
Statements after the conclusion of the talks did not indicate that any agreements had been reached, but Moscow and Kyiv both said they were open to further dialogue.
“The central focus of the discussions was the possible parameters for ending the war,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X after the meeting.
More discussions were expected next Sunday in Abu Dhabi, said a US official who spoke to reporters immediately after the talks.
“We saw a lot of respect in the room between the parties because they were really looking to find solutions,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“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 there was face-to-face engagement between Ukraine and Russia and negotiators tackled “outstanding elements” of Washington’s peace framework.
Saturday was scheduled to be the final day of the talks, billed by Zelenskyy as the first trilateral meeting under the US-mediated peace process.
The UAE statement said the talks were conducted in a “constructive and positive atmosphere” and included discussions about confidence-building measures.
Kyiv is under mounting Trump administration pressure to make concessions to reach a deal to end Europe’s deadliest and most destructive conflict since World War Two.
US peace envoy Steve Witkoff said at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos this week that a lot of progress had been made in the talks and only one sticking point remained.
After Saturday’s talks, Zelenskyy said the US delegation had raised the issue of “potential formats for formalising the parameters for ending the war, as well as the security conditions required to achieve this”.
The US official said the proposed security protocols were widely seen as “very, very 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.
Ahead of the discussions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday Russia had not dropped its insistence on Ukraine yielding all of its eastern area of Donbas, the industrial heartland grouping the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Moscow’s demand that Ukraine surrender the 20% it still holds of Donetsk – about 5,000 sq km (1,900 sq miles) – has proven a major stumbling block to any deal. Most countries recognise Donetsk as part of Ukraine. Putin says Donetsk is part of Russia’s “historical lands”.
Zelenskyy has ruled out giving up territory that Russia has not been able to capture in four years of grinding, attritional conflict against a much smaller foe. Polls show little appetite among Ukrainians for any territorial concessions.
Russia says it wants a diplomatic solution but will keep working to achieve its goals by military means as long as a negotiated solution remains elusive.
Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said late on Friday that the first day of talks had addressed parameters for ending the conflict and the “further logic of the negotiation process.”
Trucks burn at the site of a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine in this handout picture released January 24, 2026. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kyiv
Trucks burn at the site of a Russian drone and missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine in this handout picture released January 24, 2026. Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Kyiv
Meanwhile, around 1,700 apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv were still without heating following a Russian missile and drone attack earlier this week, Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said on Sunday.
Russia launched a vast attack on Ukraine’s energy system on Saturday, rocking Kyiv with explosions overnight, leaving 1.2 million properties without power countrywide during sub-zero winter temperatures.
At least one person was killed and over 30 injured.
Before Saturday’s bombardment, Kyiv had already endured two mass overnight attacks since the New Year that cut electricity and heating to hundreds of residential buildings.
Zelenskyy said on Saturday Russia’s heavy overnight strikes showed that agreements on further air defence support made with Trump in Davos this week must be “fully implemented”.
