Ukrainian and Russian negotiators wrapped up the first day of new US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, seeking to advance efforts to end Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two as fighting raged on.
The two-day trilateral meetings come after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had exploited a US-backed energy truce last week to stockpile munitions, attacking Ukraine with a record number of ballistic missiles on Tuesday.
A source told Reuters on Wednesday evening that talks had ended for the day and would continue on Thursday.
Photographs released earlier in the day by the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry showed the three delegations sitting around a U-shaped table, with US officials seated at the centre, including special envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Before the talks, chief Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov said that teams would meet in separate groups to discuss specific topics and then follow up with a joint meeting to coordinate their positions.
Shortly after talks began, Russian forces struck a crowded market in eastern Ukraine with cluster munitions, killing at least seven people and wounding 15, the Donetsk region’s Governor Vadym Filashkin said.