Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “a lot was discussed and it is important that the conversations were constructive”.
On the eve of day two, Russian drones and missiles cut off millions of people from electricity in sub-zero temperatures. Kyiv accused Moscow of undermining the negotiations by launching yet another “night of Russian terror”.
AFP journalists saw people running through the streets to find shelter as explosions lit up the night sky over the capital, Kyiv.
After another sleepless night, weary Kyiv residents had little hope for a breakthrough in the nearly four-year war.
“They’ll just say that everything is fine, that again, nothing has been agreed and again there will be rockets,” Anastasia Tolkachov, who had to spend a night in a carpark, said.
‘Again and again’
The United Arab Emirates Government said the meetings, which involved top military officers from both sides, were held in a “constructive and positive atmosphere”.
The talks focused on “outstanding elements of the US-proposed peace framework as well as confidence-building measures”, the UAE said.
According to Zelenskyy, “the central focus of the discussions was the possible parameters for ending the war”.
Both warring sides say the fate of territory in the eastern Donbas region is the main unresolved issue in the search for a settlement.
Over a million people in Kyiv and Chernigiv were left without electricity in sub-zero temperatures because of Russian strikes. About half of Kyiv’s apartment blocks were cut off from heating, Ukrainian authorities said.
“This night in Kyiv, it’s really all happening again and again,” Iryna Berehova, 48, told AFP, adding: “These explosions, these sleepless nights, these worries for our children, for our safety, they are very exhausting.”
“These negotiations that are taking place don’t even give us any hope for the better.”
The European Union, which has sent hundreds of power generators to Ukraine, has accused Moscow of “deliberately depriving civilians of heat”.
Zelenskyy last week declared a state of emergency in the energy sector, which has been battered by relentless Russian strikes on heat and electricity supplies.
The Moscow-installed governor in the occupied Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said a Ukrainian drone strike killed three people in an ambulance van heading to a sick man.
While diplomacy to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II has gained pace again, Moscow and Kyiv appear deadlocked over the issue of territory.
Donbas territory dispute
Trump met Zelenskyy at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday (local time) and US Steve Witkoff later held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
Hours after Putin met Witkoff – and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – in Moscow, the Kremlin said its demand that Kyiv withdraw from the eastern Donbas region still stood, calling it “a very important condition”.
Kyiv rejects it. “The Donbas is a key issue,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Friday (local time), ahead of the talks in the UAE.
Zelenskyy said he and Trump had agreed on post-war security guarantees in Davos.
An initial US draft drew heavy criticism in Kyiv and western Europe for hewing too closely to Moscow’s demands, while Russia rejected later versions because they proposed European peacekeepers in Ukraine.
Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to get full control of eastern Ukraine by force if talks fail.
Trump has in the past pressured Ukraine to agree to terms that Kyiv sees as capitulation.
– Agence France-Presse
