Russian, Ukrainian and US officials began a second day of peace talks in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, resuming meetings which Kyiv and Washington depicted on Monday as constructive but produced no early signs of a breakthrough.
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators gave no details after Monday’s US-brokered talks, the first between the two warring sides since February, and Moscow and Kyiv went into the talks far apart on terms for a possible settlement.
“We are starting the second day of the talks,” Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s top negotiator, said on the Telegram app. “First, there will be a trilateral format with the United States and Russia. After that, we will have a separate meeting with the European partners.”
“We are starting the second day of the talks,” Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s top negotiator, said on the Telegram app. “First, there will be a trilateral format with the United States and Russia. After that, we will have a separate meeting with the European partners.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the first day of talks as very productive, without giving details. The second day of talks is the last day when meetings are scheduled.
Despite public optimism from US President Donald Trump, there has been no sign of major compromises or that new issues are being discussed more than 4-1/2 years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russian forces control about a fifth of Ukraine, but territory is not the only issue at stake. Others include future security guarantees, which both sides want, and Moscow’s demands that Ukraine adopt neutral status and not join NATO.
Each said side the other had launched attacks overnight, despite the peace talks being under way.
Russia struck six large electricity substations in Ukraine’s four central regions, Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said. Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz said Russian jet drones had hit one of its facilities in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, causing a fire and damaging equuipment.
Drone debris killed two people after hitting an apartment building in Russia’s Smolensk region bordering Belarus, the TASS news agency said, citing the regional governor.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had struck a cargo vessel in the Black Sea southwest of the Ukrainian port city of Odesa that was carrying weapons and military equipment for Ukraine’s armed forces.
