Russia-Ukraine war: Second round of peace talks begin in Abu Dhabi
Al Jazeera
The main sticking point in the negotiations continues to be the long-term fate of territory in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators have begun a second round of United States-brokered talks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as they seek to advance the fraught negotiations on how to end Russia’s nearly four-year war on Ukraine.
The Russian and Ukrainian delegations arrived in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday morning, according to Russian state media and a spokesperson for the Ukrainian chief negotiator. It remained unclear when the US delegation would arrive.
“Another round of negotiations has begun in Abu Dhabi,” Rustem Umerov, head of the Ukrainian delegation, wrote on social media, adding Kyiv’s team was seeking “to achieve a just and lasting peace”.
The two-day trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of violating an agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump that called for ceasing attacks on energy facilities.
A large Russian drone and missile barrage in the run-up to the talks pounded Ukraine’s energy grid, knocked out power and heating in temperatures far below freezing and threatened to overshadow any chances of progress in the Emirati capital.
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