Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy announces a second round of direct talks with Russia starting February 4th. This is three days later than initially planned.
dpa/rtr | Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj has announced the next round of talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi about ending Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine for next Wednesday. “The dates for the next trilateral meetings have been set – February 4th and 5th in Abu Dhabi,” he shared. It received a corresponding report from its negotiating team.
Trilateral talks – between Ukrainian and Russian representatives as well as US negotiators – had already taken place in Abu Dhabi last weekend. After that, this Sunday was initially mentioned as the date for a sequel. The governments in Moscow and Kyiv had announced the date, but – as last week – did not give an exact place or time.
“Ukraine is ready for a substantive discussion, and we are interested in an outcome that brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war,” said Zelensky.
There is currently no Russian statement available. Meanwhile, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu arrived in China for talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Russian pause in attacks ends on Sunday
It also remained unclear whether the Russian one Pause attacks on energy infrastructure could now also continue beyond Sunday or not. Russia had agreed to a request from US President Donald Trump to temporarily refrain from new attacks against energy facilities, also in order to create a good basis for the negotiations in Abu Dhabi.
There were initially no new reports of Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities on Sunday. After a blackout on Saturday due to a power line failure, work to restore supply was ongoing. According to authorities, emergency shutdowns continued across the country.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that more and more houses were being reconnected to the heating supply. Accordingly, around 1,000 houses in the capital were still without heat supply in the morning, after 3,500 houses the evening before.
According to authorities, two people were killed in a Russian drone attack in the city of Dnipro on Sunday night. A man and a woman died, military governor Olexander Hanscha announced. A fire broke out. One house was destroyed and two other buildings were damaged. The Ukrainian air force reported a total of 90 Russian drone attacks in the country, with a total of around a dozen impacts.
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