IRIA News

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Ukraine and Russia concluded a second day of U.S.-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi on January 24, 2026, without reaching an agreement, though both sides signaled openness to further negotiations.

The talks ended amid intensified Russian airstrikes that knocked out electricity and heating for large parts of Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, during subzero winter temperatures.

Statements issued after the meeting indicated no breakthrough, but officials from Moscow, Kyiv, and Washington said discussions would continue, with another round expected next weekend in Abu Dhabi.

“The central focus of the discussions was the possible parameters for ending the war,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X following the talks.

A U.S. official speaking to reporters after the meeting said further discussions were expected next Sunday. “We saw a lot of respect in the room between the parties because they were really looking to find solutions,” the official said.

Our delegation delivered a report; the meetings in the UAE have concluded. And this was the first format of this kind in quite some time: two days of trilateral meetings. A lot was discussed, and it is important that the conversations were constructive.

The negotiations also…

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 24, 2026

“We got to real granular detail and (we feel) that next Sunday will be, God willing, another meeting where we push this deal towards its final culmination,” the U.S. official added.

Face-to-Face Engagement

According to a statement from the United Arab Emirates government, the talks included rare face-to-face engagement between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators, an unusual development in a war that began nearly four years ago following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The UAE said negotiators addressed “outstanding elements” of Washington’s proposed peace framework and described the discussions as taking place in a “constructive and positive atmosphere.” Confidence-building measures were also discussed.

Looking beyond next weekend, the U.S. official said Washington hoped the process could eventually expand to meetings in Moscow or Kyiv.

“Those sorts of meetings have to happen, in our view, before we get a bilateral between (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Zelenskyy, or a trilateral with Putin, Zelenskiy, and President Trump. But I don’t think we’re so far away from that,” the official said.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has described the Saturday meeting as the final day of what he termed the first trilateral meeting under the U.S.-mediated peace process.

Russian Strikes During Talks

As negotiations were underway, Ukraine came under renewed Russian bombardment. Overnight attacks involving hundreds of drones and missiles targeted Kyiv and the northeastern city of Kharkiv, causing widespread damage to energy infrastructure.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 375 drones and 21 missiles in the overnight assault, once again focusing on power and heating systems. At least one person was killed, and more than 30 were injured nationwide, according to Ukrainian officials.

In Kyiv, officials said around 800,000 people were left without electricity after the latest strikes, with temperatures hovering near minus 10 degrees Celsius. The city’s deputy prime minister said the outages affected large residential areas already strained by earlier attacks.

Engineers faced major challenges restoring services. City officials said around 6,000 apartment blocks were without heat on Saturday morning, 4,000 more than in previous days, including many buildings that had only recently been reconnected.

Before Saturday’s assault, Kyiv had already endured two large overnight attacks since the start of the year that disrupted electricity and heating for hundreds of residential buildings.

Вночі Росія масовано атакувала наші регіони – випустили понад 370 ударних дронів та 21 ракету різних типів. Під ударами Київ та область, Сумщина, Харківщина, Чернігівщина. У Харкові пошкодили пологовий будинок, гуртожиток, де мешкали переселенці, медичний коледж і житлові… pic.twitter.com/yMJGmkwOxl

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 24, 2026

Ukrainian Reaction

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who did not attend the talks, sharply criticized the timing of the strikes, accusing Moscow of acting in bad faith.

“Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, this was another night of Russian terror,” Sybiha said after the latest attack.

“Cynically, Putin ordered a brutal, massive missile strike against Ukraine right while delegations are meeting in Abu Dhabi to advance the America-led peace process. His missiles hit not only our people, but also the negotiation table,” he said.

“This barbaric attack once again proves that Putin’s place is not at (U.S. President Donald Trump’s) Board of Peace, but in the dock of the special tribunal,” Sybiha wrote on X.

Zelenskyy said the overnight strikes underscored the urgency of implementing agreements on additional air defense support discussed with Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this week. He said those commitments must be “fully implemented.”

Pressure and Sticking Points

The talks come as Kyiv faces increasing pressure from the Trump administration to consider concessions to end what has become Europe’s deadliest and most destructive conflict since World War Two.

U.S. peace envoy Steve Witkoff said earlier this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos that significant progress had been made and that only one major sticking point remained. Russian officials, however, have expressed greater skepticism about the prospects for a deal.

Ahead of the Abu Dhabi discussions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that Russia had not abandoned its demand that Ukraine yield full control of the eastern Donbas region, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk areas.

Russia currently occupies much of Donetsk but has been unable to seize around 20% of the region, roughly 5,000 square kilometers. Most countries recognize Donetsk as part of Ukraine, while Putin has described it as part of Russia’s “historical lands.”

Zelenskyy has repeatedly ruled out ceding territory that Russian forces have failed to capture after four years of fighting. Opinion polls indicate little public support in Ukraine for territorial concessions.

Russia has said it prefers a diplomatic solution but will continue pursuing its objectives by military means if negotiations fail to deliver results.

Security Guarantees and Next Steps

After Saturday’s talks, Zelenskyy said the U.S. delegation raised “potential formats for formalizing the parameters for ending the war, as well as the security conditions required to achieve this.”

The U.S. official said the proposed security protocols had been reviewed by Ukraine and European allies and described them as unusually strong.

“The Ukrainians and many of the national security advisors of all the European countries have reviewed these security protocols. And to a person, and this includes NATO, including (NATO Secretary General) Mark Rutte, they have expressed the fact that they’ve never seen security protocols this robust,” the official said.

Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Secretary Umerov said the first day of talks focused on parameters for ending the war and the “further logic of the negotiation process.”

Despite the ongoing bombardment, negotiators resumed talks on Saturday morning, and both sides suggested that dialogue would continue. Zelenskyy described the discussions as constructive and indicated that another round could take place as early as next week.

As talks concluded, Ukraine remained under strain from continued attacks on its energy infrastructure, with officials warning that restoring heat, power, and water would take time as winter conditions persisted.