afp/dpa | A positive outcome: That was the conclusion of the Ukrainian representatives at the end of the first day of another round of talks on an end to the war in Ukraine on Wednesday in Abu Dhabi. “The work was rich in content and productive with an orientation towards concrete steps and practical solutions,” wrote Ukrainian chief negotiator Rustem Umyerov on social media. After the three-way meeting, negotiations continued in working groups.
At the start of the second round of Ukraine talks, Russia reiterated its maximum demand and threatened to continue the war if it were not. “Until the regime in Kyiv makes the right decisions, the special operation will continue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.
Russia is demanding the cession of all of Donbass in eastern Ukraine, although Ukrainian forces still control part of the region.
Direct talks between representatives of Russia and Ukraine began on Wednesday in the capital of the Emirates, as Ukrainian chief negotiator Rustem Umerov announced. The aim of the delegation from Kyiv is to “achieve a just and lasting peace” in accordance with the instructions of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Umerov wrote in online services.
A major point of contention remains
The negotiations “started in a trilateral format” and were followed by discussions in working groups on various topics, he added. The two-day negotiations were originally scheduled for Sunday, but were then postponed to Wednesday.
A week and a half ago, negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv spoke directly to each other for the first time about the US plan to end the fighting. According to information from negotiating circles, the two sides now agree on several points. However, the main point of contention remains Moscow’s demand for Ukraine’s complete withdrawal from the important industrial region of Donbass.
Meanwhile, Russian attacks in Ukraine continued despite negotiations. Authorities in the town of Druzhkivka in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region reported at least six deaths from Russian shelling at a market on Wednesday.
The Russian army “shelled the city with cluster munitions and directly hit the market, where there are always a lot of people out and about in the morning,” said Vadym Filaschkin, governor of the embattled Donetsk region. The Russian army aims to capture Druzhkivka.
Shortly before the start of the second round of talks, Russia and Ukraine each reported several deaths from drone attacks on Wednesday morning. A Russian drone attack in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine killed a 68-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man, the head of the local military administration told Telegram.
Two dead in Luhansk
Meanwhile, the authorities appointed by Moscow said that a young man and a 20-year-old woman were killed the evening before in a Ukrainian drone attack on a minibus in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, which is almost entirely controlled by Russian forces.
On Tuesday night, the Russian armed forces had already reached Ukraine in freezing temperatures covered in severe attacks – and thus ended a short break. According to the Ukrainian energy company DTEK, energy supply facilities were particularly hit.
These are the “most serious attacks since the beginning of the year”. As a result of the shelling, heating failed in more than 1,100 homes in the capital Kyiv and in 800 homes in the eastern city of Kharkiv.
Zelensky had said that the renewed attacks showed “that Moscow’s attitude has not changed: they continue to rely on war and the destruction of Ukraine and do not take diplomacy seriously.” The work of the Ukrainian negotiating team will be “adjusted accordingly,” he added.
The deputy spokesman for the federal government, Steffen Meyer, said with regard to the talks in Abu Dhabi that it was good that they were now being continued. “We support Ukraine and accompany them in this process,” he explained. “We continue to work intensively with European and American partners to really bring this war to an end.”