Ukraine talks end in Abu Dhabi as Kyiv endures new air barrage

Two days of talks between U.S., Russian and Ukrainian negotiators aimed at finding a path to end the four-year war wrapped up in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, hours as Kyiv came under a massive Russian air attack.

Saturday’s discussions ran for about three hours. The Ukrainian delegation is expected to brief President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who’s likely to then issue comments. Another round of trilateral talks will be held next week, Axios reported.

Kremlin forces overnight launched more than 370 drones and 21 missiles, Zelenskyy said in earlier on X. Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as parts of the Sumy, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions in Ukraine’s north came under fire, he said. Power cuts are widespread.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha denounced the strikes as a “cynical” move by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “His missiles hit not only our people, but also the negotiation table,” Sybiha said on X.

At least one person was killed in Kyiv and four injured, while falling debris sparked fires across multiple districts and disrupted water and heating supplies, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in Telegram posts.

Nearly 6,000 buildings in the capital were left without heating amid subzero temperatures around -8C (18F). The strikes damaged critical infrastructure, much of which had only recently been reconnected following strikes earlier in the month, Klitschko said. More than 800,000 consumers in Kyiv are without electricity, said Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba.

In Kharkiv, a maternity hospital, a dormitory for displaced people, a medical college and residential buildings were among the buildings damaged, with dozens injured, Zelenskyy said. At least 31 person was wounded, according to local authorities.

Almost the entire city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, with a population of about 300,000, were left without electricity, and authorities called on residents to store water.

Emergency power outages were imposed in the Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Chernivtsi regions, according to statements from local utilities.

Kuleba separately said that EU will give Ukraine 447 generators to help with power for schools, hospitals and shelters.

“Every such Russian strike on our energy infrastructure proves that there must be no delays in supplying air defenses,” Zelenskyy said. “No blind eye can be turned to these strikes; they must be met with a strong response. We are counting on the reaction and assistance of all our partners.”

Earlier in the week, Zelenskyy discussed strengthening Ukraine’s air defenses with U.S. President Donald Trump during their meeting at the Davos forum, and made a blistering attack on European allies for not standing up to Putin.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its overnight strikes targeted a plant producing long-range drones and energy facilities linked to Ukraine’s military-industrial complex. The drones hit a Roshen Confectionery chocolate and cake factory in Kyiv owned by Ukraine’s former President Petro Poroshenko, killing an employee.

Separately, Russia separately reported that 75 Ukrainian drones targeted various regions overnight, with no information on damage. Most of the drones were intercepted over the Rostov and Belgorod regions.

Thousands of buildings in Kyiv and across Ukraine have been left without heating and basic amenities by frequent Russian airstrikes. The latest barrage coincided with the trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi.

The latest discussions followed months of U.S.-led negotiations in pursuit of peace talks between two sides. U.S. and Ukrainian officials earlier said they’ve made significant progress on a 20-point plan to end the conflict that’s lasted almost four years, and spiraled into Europe’s biggest since World War II.

After Trump met Zelenskyy at Davos this week, U.S. representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law, traveled to Moscow to meet Putin before heading to Abu Dhabi. The pair are next set to meet in Israel on Saturday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ukraine’s delegation in the UAE was led by National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, while the Russian team was headed by Igor Kostyukov, chief of the country’s military intelligence service.

Kyiv and Moscow remain at an impasse on key points, including Putin’s demands that Kyiv cede areas of its eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces still under Ukrainian control.

The Kremlin made it clear after talks with the U.S. representatives that the “territorial issue” remains unresolved, raising questions about whether the Abu Dhabi meetings will yield any progress.

There is “no hope of achieving a long-term settlement” until Russia’s demands for territory in Ukraine are accepted, Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in an audio recording on Telegram early Friday.

Russia insists on securing what it calls the “Anchorage understandings,” reached at Putin’s August summit with Trump in Alaska. That would require Ukraine to turn over the whole of Donetsk, while fighting would be frozen along the current lines of contact in the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

Ukraine rejects demands to withdraw its forces from the heavily fortified areas of Donetsk that Putin’s military has failed to occupy in fighting that stretches back to 2014. US proposals have suggested turning the unoccupied area into a de-militarized or free economic zone under special administration.

Late Friday Zelenskiy said in a Telegram post that it was too early to draw conclusions from the Abu Dhabi talks. While Ukraine wants to end the war and achieve full security, he said, progress would require a similar willingness on the Russian side.