A first day of talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States aimed at brokering an end to the war in Ukraine concluded Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, with Kyiv describing negotiations as “substantive and productive”
After Ukraine, Russia has come forward to respond positively to the recently held trilateral talks with the US in Abu Dhabi. On Thursday, Moscow’s top negotiator said that there was “progress” in the talks.
“There is definitely progress, things are moving forward in a good, positive direction,” Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev told state media.
He slammed what he described as attempts from European nations to “disrupt the progress” at the start of a second day of talks in the UAE between Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators.
How did the talks go?
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first day of talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States aimed at brokering an end to the war in Ukraine concluded Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, with Kyiv describing negotiations as “substantive and productive”.
While there was no apparent breakthrough in the most recent round of discussions, meetings were set to carry on into a second day, Kyiv said.
Wednesday’s talks came following weeks of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure, which have left Kyiv residents in darkness and cold, with temperatures dropping as low as -20C.
Russia hits Ukraine’s energy grid
Just hours before the Abu Dhabi talks commenced, Russia unleashed a massive attack on Ukraine, targeting its energy infrastructure. The Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia launched
71 missiles and 450 drones on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday.
Out of the Russian arsenal, 38 missiles and 412 drones were shot down or suppressed by Ukrainian forces. The attack was the biggest reported by the Ukrainian army so far this year and has crippled the country’s energy grid.
Despite the Kremlin repeating its hardline demands ahead of the talks, Ukraine’s top negotiator Rustem Umerov said the first day had been “substantive and productive, focused on concrete steps and practical solutions”.
In Ukraine, foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy said Kyiv was “interested in finding out what the Russians and Americans really want.”
The content of the talks was on “military and military-political issues,” he added, without elaborating.
With inputs from agencies
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