US, Russia agree to reestablish high-level military-to-military dialogue – Firstpost

The United States and Russia have agreed to resume senior-level military communications, according to a statement issued by US European Command on Thursday following talks held in Abu Dhabi between top military officials from both sides.

The decision came after discussions involving General Alexus Grynkewich, commander of US European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, along with senior military representatives from Russia and Ukraine, the statement said.

The renewed channel is intended to restore regular military-to-military engagement as efforts continue towards achieving a durable peace. Such high-level military contacts had been halted in 2021, shortly before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Maintaining dialogue between militaries is an important factor in global stability and peace, which can only be achieved through strength, and provides a means for increased transparency and de-escalation,” the US military’s European Command said in a statement.

The agreement to re-establish the military dialogue, suspended in 2021, also came after “productive and constructive progress” at Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi attended by Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, European Command said.

Campaigners have warned the nuclear weapons treaty’s demise could unleash a new arms race between the world’s top nuclear powers, and encourage China to expand its arsenal.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that 55,000 Ukrainian troops have died since Russia’s invasion almost four years ago. “And there is a large number of people whom Ukraine considers missing,” he added in an interview broadcast by French TV channel France 2 late Wednesday.

The last time Zelenskyy gave a figure for battlefield deaths, in early 2025, he said 46,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed.

The delegations from Moscow and Kyiv were joined Thursday in the capital of the United Arab Emirates by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council chief, who was present at the meeting.

They were also at last month’s talks in the same place as the Trump administration tries to steer the two countries toward a settlement. At the time, Zelenskyy described the issue of who would control the Donbas industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine as “key.”

Officials have provided no information about any progress in the discussions.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly said his country needs security guarantees from the U.S. and Europe to deter any postwar Russian attacks.

Ukrainians must feel that there is genuine progress toward peace and “not toward a scenario in which the Russians exploit everything to their advantage and continue their strikes,” Zelenskyy said on social media late Wednesday.

Last year saw a 31% increase in Ukrainian civilian casualties compared with 2024, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a report published Wednesday.

Almost 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and just over 40,000 injured since the start of the war through last December, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrived in Kyiv on an official visit Thursday.

Two people were injured in the Ukrainian capital as a result of overnight Russian drone strikes, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. In the wider Kyiv region, a man suffered a shrapnel chest wound, authorities said.

Russia fired 183 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force.

Russian air defences downed 95 Ukrainian drones overnight over several regions, the Azov Sea and Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2016, Russia’s Defence Ministry said.

With inputs from agencies