KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv on Thursday held a second day of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi on ending their war amid an escalation in Russia’s winter attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and after a sharp increase last year in Ukrainian civilians killed in the fighting.
“We are working in the same formats as yesterday: trilateral consultations, teamwork, and more synchronization of positions,” said Rustem Umerov, the head of the Security and National Defense Council of Ukraine, who was present at the meeting.
The delegations from Moscow and Kyiv were joined in the capital of the United Arab Emirates by the special envoy of the United States Steve Witkoff and by the son of the American President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, according to Umerov. They were also in the talks last month in the same place where the Trump administration is trying to lead the two countries towards a solution.
General Alexus Grynkewich, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in Europe, was also present at the talks, according to a spokesman for the general who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged allied countries to pressure Moscow to end its full-scale invasion, which began nearly four years ago on February 24, 2022, saying his country needs security guarantees to deter any post-war Russian attack.
Ukrainians should feel that there is genuine progress towards peace and “not towards a scenario in which the Russians exploit everything to their advantage and continue their attacks,” Zelenskyy said on social media late Wednesday.
The fighting continued in parallel with the talks. Russia has hammered Ukraine’s electricity grid, aiming to disempower civilians and weaken their appetite for combat, while continuing a grinding war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line that straddles eastern and southern Ukraine.
Last year saw a 31% increase in Ukrainian civilian casualties compared to 2024, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a report published Wednesday.
Nearly 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and just over 40,000 wounded since the start of the war until last December, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
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Emma Burrows in London contributed to this report.
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