FLASH NEWS
The Fourth Winter of War/ Will Ukraine-Russia Talks Bring an End to the Bombing?
2026-01-24 08:49:43 / BOTA
For the first time since last year, Kiev and Moscow have held direct negotiations. With the mediation of the United States, the parties met in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, to discuss the US plan to end the war against Ukraine. The first round of talks has ended, the Ukrainian presidential office announced.
The tripartite meeting focused on the conditions for ending the war, Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov said, but did not provide details. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his video message late on Tuesday, said it was too early to draw conclusions from the meeting in Abu Dhabi.
The negotiations are mainly about territory, more specifically, Donbass – and the question of who will control this industrial region of eastern Ukraine after the war ends. Russia has occupied a large part of it militarily. The rest is of great importance to Ukraine. Moscow is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from the part of Donbass still controlled by Kiev – and is making this a precondition for peace talks. Kiev refuses a voluntary withdrawal. “The Donbass issue is a key issue,” President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed before the negotiations began.
For the Ukrainian military, the Donetsk region in Donbas is strategically important for stopping a Russian advance. In this regard, the Trump administration has proposed demilitarizing the region and creating a free trade zone. But Donbas has been largely destroyed after fierce fighting, and both sides are claiming control.
Andreas Umland, a political scientist at the Stockholm Center for East European Studies, describes the talks in Abu Dhabi as “diplomatic theater.” He argues that throughout the past year, the discussions have had less to do with achieving a ceasefire or even peace, and more to do with currying favor with U.S. President Donald Trump. “That’s because the U.S. potentially has the power to either continue or end the war.” Umland questions Russia’s genuine interest in ending the war.
Millions of people in Ukraine are currently without electricity. In the capital, Kyiv, 4,000 buildings remain without heat after the Russian military again attacked the country's energy infrastructure on Tuesday evening. Temperatures in Kyiv are currently around minus twelve degrees Celsius. Many people have been living in cold apartments for weeks with only a few hours of electricity a day.
The EU announced it would send 447 additional emergency generators to Ukraine. Russia's actions were "deliberately" depriving civilians of heat, light and basic necessities in the midst of a harsh winter, EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib said. /DW
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