Ukraine war talks delayed to Wednesday, Zelensky says

A second round of talks between Russian, Ukrainian and US officials on a US-drafted plan to end the nearly four-year Ukraine war will begin on Wednesday, instead of on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Zelensky did not give a reason for the delay.

The announcement comes a day after one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top envoys held surprise talks with US officials in Florida without Ukraine.

“The dates for the next trilateral meetings have been set –- February 4 and 5 in Abu Dhabi,” Zelensky said in a post on X.

Neither the Kremlin nor the United States have confirmed the new dates.

The United States says it is close to brokering a deal to end the conflict — Europe’s deadliest since World War II — but neither Moscow nor Kyiv have been able to find a compromise on the key issue of territory.

Russia, which occupies around 20 percent of its neighbour, is pushing for full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region as part of any deal. It has threatened to take it by force if talks fail.

Ukraine has warned ceding ground will embolden Moscow and that it will not sign a deal that fails to deter Russia from invading again. Many Ukrainians find the idea of surrendering territory that their soldiers have defended for years unconscionable.

The first round of talks on the US plan, held in Abu Dhabi last Friday and Saturday, failed to yield a breakthrough.

– ‘We are encouraged’ –

A day ahead of Zelensky’s announcement, Russia’s top economic envoy Kirill Dmitriev met with US officials in Florida for separate talks on the war.

Among those US officials were President Donald Trump’s peace envoy Steve Witkoff, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and White House Senior Advisor Josh Gruenbaum.

“We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine,” Witkoff said, though neither side released details of what was discussed.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a “special military operation” to prevent the expansion of NATO — a war aim that Kyiv has called a pretext for an illegal land grab.

The conflict has since resulted in a tidal wave of destruction that has left entire cities in ruins and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians dead.

Russian attacks on Ukraine overnight and early Sunday killed at least two people and injured seven others, regional authorities said.

Among the attacks was a drone strike on a maternity hospital in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia that injured two women undergoing a medical examination, the region’s governor and rescuers said.

Ukraine’s defence minister on Sunday thanked Elon Musk after the US tycoon said efforts to stop Russia from using Starlink satellites for drone attacks seemed to have worked.

“The first steps are already delivering real results… Thank you for standing with us. You are a true champion of freedom and a true friend of the Ukrainian people,” said Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.