KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Negotiators from Moscow and Kiev held a second day of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi on Thursday to discuss ending the war. Russia’s winter attacks on Ukraine’s power grid have escalated, with the number of Ukrainian civilians killed in fighting rising sharply last year.
“We are working in the same way as yesterday: trilateral consultations, group work and further synchronization of positions,” said Rustem Umerov, chairman of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, who attended the meeting.
Umerov said U.S. envoy Steve Witkov and U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were joining delegations from Moscow and Kiev in the United Arab Emirates capital. They also held talks at the same location last month as the Trump administration tried to steer the two countries toward reconciliation.
A spokesman for Gen. Alexus Grinkovich, NATO’s top allied commander in Europe, said he also attended the talks. The general requested anonymity discussing sensitive issues.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged allies to pressure Moscow to end a full-scale invasion that began almost four years ago on February 24, 2022, saying Ukraine needs security guarantees to thwart any post-war Russian attacks.
Zelensky said on social media late Wednesday that Ukrainians must feel that real progress toward peace is being made, rather than “Russians using all means to benefit themselves and continue to launch attacks.”
While the negotiations were ongoing, the fighting continued. Russia has launched a brutal attack on Ukraine’s power grid, aiming to cut off civilians’ power and weaken their desire to fight, while a brutal war of attrition continues along some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) of front lines that wind in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Civilian casualties in Ukraine increased by 31% last year compared with 2024, advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Wednesday.
According to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, nearly 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and more than 40,000 injured since the outbreak of the war until December last year.
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Emma Burrows in London contributed to this report.
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