Ukrainian, Russian Envoys To Resume Talks As War’s Four-Year Anniversary Looms
Adedokun Waliyu
2 min read
Talks to end Russia’s nearly four-year war in Ukraine are expected to resume this week in the United Arab Emirates after a brief postponement as frontline fighting continues to flare up between the eastern European nations.
The trilateral talks brokered by the United States will go ahead Wednesday and Thursday in Abu Dhabi, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said via The Associated Press. The warring parties also met last month in the Emirati capital to try to end the bitter conflict.
“On some issues, we have certainly come closer because there have been discussions, conversations, and on some issues it is easier to find common ground,” he told reporters, describing the negotiations as “very complex.”
He added, “There are issues where it’s more difficult to find common ground.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that a delegation was being sent to the meeting, which was delayed over the weekend due to what Russia said were scheduling conflicts.
Still, there seems to be little progress in bringing an end to Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine as the war’s four-year anniversary approaches later this month, even as the Trump administration pushes the sides to a resolution.
Kirill Dmitriev, the chief executive of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, was in Miami over the weekend for talks with U.S. officials, The Associated Press reported, but Peskov declined to offer details about the meeting.
Russia, which also annexed the Crimean Peninsula in a separate campaign in 2014, has been steadfast in keeping the territory its army has occupied in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland as well as other regions that it hasn’t been able to seize.
The Russian military has stepped up its drone and missile attacks in civilian areas as well, including a strike on Sunday that killed 12 miners on a bus. Moscow has also pummelled Ukraine’s power grid, leaving their citizens without heat, electricity and running water in the depths of winter.
As dawn broke Tuesday in Kyiv, reports said Kyiv and Kharkiv were being bombarded by more missiles and drones with apartment buildings, an educational establishment and a commercial building being struck in the Ukrainian capital, according to The Guardian.
Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, meanwhile, asked SpaceX to restrict Russia’s use of its Starlink service in Ukraine, which he said is being used to steer drones toward Ukrainian targets.
Starlink users are being asked to register their terminals on a database, so that only approved devices are allowed to function inside Ukraine, Fedorov said via The Associated Press.
“Looks like the steps we took to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked,” Musk said on X. “Let us know if more needs to be done.”
