Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the second round of US-backed trilateral peace talks with Russia will take place in Abu Dhabi on February 4-5, saying Ukraine is ready for a “substantive discussion” and hopes the outcome will bring the country closer to a “real and dignified end to the war.”
Neither the Kremlin nor the United States has confirmed the dates. The talks in Abu Dhabi had been due to start on Sunday but were postponed after Russia’s top envoy Kirill Dmitriev said he had held a “constructive meeting with the US peacemaking delegation” in Florida.
US participants at the Florida meeting included President Donald Trump’s peace envoy Steve Witkoff, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Jared Kushner and White House senior adviser Josh Gruenbaum. Witkoff said he was encouraged that Russia is working toward securing peace; neither side released details of the discussions.
Officials have shared few details of the Abu Dhabi meetings, which are part of the Trump administration’s effort to end the nearly four-year war. The first round in late January produced no breakthrough on the central territorial issue of the Donbas: Russia demands Ukrainian forces leave the region, while Kyiv says ceding ground would only embolden Moscow.
Ahead of the planned talks, Russia reportedly agreed to a request by Trump to pause strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as the country faces a severe winter. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the limited ceasefire would last only until Sunday to provide a “good basis” for the peace talks.
Despite the pause, a Russian drone struck a company shuttle bus carrying mine workers in Dnipropetrovsk region on Sunday, killing 12 people and wounding seven, officials and energy firm DTEK said. DTEK called the incident “a large-scale terrorist attack on DTEK mines,” saying the epicenter of one attack was a bus transporting miners after their shift. Zelenskyy offered condolences to the victims’ families.
He also reported other drone strikes on power infrastructure in Nikopol and Marhanets that caused outages, and attacks on railway infrastructure in the Dnipro and Sumy regions, with railway workers responding to carry out repairs and restore connectivity.
Regional officials earlier said at least nine people were injured in Russian attacks on a maternity hospital and a residential building in Zaporizhzhia.
Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko