Russia and Ukraine envoys meet in Abu Dhabi for 2 days of US-brokered talks

“The discussions were substantive and productive, focusing on concrete steps and practical solutions,” Umerov said on social media as the first of two days of talks wrapped up.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a breakthrough in the talks may not come for a while but the Trump administration has made great progress on negotiations over the past year.

“That’s the good news,” Rubio told reporters Wednesday. “The bad news is that the items that remain are the most difficult ones. And meanwhile the war continues.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t offer any details on the talks and said that Moscow wasn’t planning to comment on their results.

He said that “the doors for a peaceful settlement are open,” but that Moscow will proceed with its military campaign until Kyiv meets its demands.

Last month’s discussions in Abu Dhabi, part of a U.S. push to end the fighting, yielded some progress but no breakthrough on key issues, officials said.

The current talks also coincide with the expiry of the last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States on Thursday. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could extend the terms of the treaty or renegotiate its conditions in an effort to prevent a new nuclear arms race.

Energy networks targeted

The Abu Dhabi talks were held as Ukrainians were outraged over major Russian attacks on their energy system, which have occurred each winter since Russia launched its all-out invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24, 2022.

A huge Russian bombardment overnight from Monday to Tuesday included hundreds of drones and a record 32 ballistic missiles, wounding at least 10 people. This came despite Ukraine’s understanding that Putin had told Trump that he would temporarily halt strikes on Ukraine’s power grid.

Ukrainian civilians are struggling with one of the coldest winters in years, which saw temperatures dip to around minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit).

About 60 foreign ambassadors took part in an organized visit Wednesday to a Kyiv thermal power plant that was almost completely destroyed by missiles and drones in the Monday night attack. The plant provided heating to about 500,000 people.

Russia is hitting Ukraine’s energy facilities because its armed forces believe the targets are associated with Kyiv’s military effort, Peskov said.

There has been a lack of clarity about how long Putin had promised to observe a pause on power grid attacks.

Trump said Tuesday at the White House that Putin had agreed to halt strikes for a week, through Feb. 1, and that the Russian leader had kept his word. But Zelenskyy said Tuesday that “barely four days have passed of the week Russia was asked to hold off,” before Ukraine was hit with new attacks, suggesting that the Ukrainian leader wasn't fully aware of the terms of the Trump-Putin agreement.

Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump was “unfortunately unsurprised” by Moscow’s resumption of attacks.

On Wednesday, more than 200 repair crews were at work in Kyiv to restore power, according to the Ukrainian Energy Ministry, which said that staff were exhausted and would be rotated. More than 1,100 apartment buildings in the capital were still without heating, Zelenskyy said.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said that the developments were part of Moscow’s negotiating strategy.

“The Kremlin will likely attempt to portray its adherence to this short-term energy strikes moratorium as a significant concession to gain leverage in the upcoming peace talks, even though the Kremlin used these few days to stockpile missiles for a larger strike package,” it said late Tuesday.

New attacks

Russia used cluster munitions Wednesday in an attack on a busy market in eastern Ukraine that killed seven and wounded 15 others, officials said.

The attack on the town of Druzhkivka darkened prospects for progress in the UAE, with Donetsk regional military administration chief Vadym Filashkin describing Russian talk of a ceasefire as “worthless.”

Russia also launched 105 drones against Ukraine overnight, and air defenses shot down 88 of them, the Ukrainian air force said Wednesday. Strikes by 17 drones were recorded at 14 locations, as well as falling debris at five sites, it said.

In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, a Russian strike on a residential area killed a 68-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man, regional military administration head Oleksandr Hancha said.

The southern city of Odesa also came under a large-scale attack, regional military administration head Oleh Kiper said. About 20 residential buildings were damaged, with four people rescued from under the rubble, he said.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine