Russia says ball in Kyiv court to end war as UAE talks open

ABU DHABI: Russia on Wednesday demanded Ukraine accept its conditions to end the four-year-war and vowed to press on with its invasion otherwise, as negotiations between the two sides opened in Abu Dhabi.

The US-mediated talks are the latest round of negotiations in a flurry of diplomacy that has so far failed to strike a deal to halt the war, unleashed by Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

The war has spiralled into Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, with hundreds of thousands killed, millions forced to flee their homes in Ukraine and much of eastern and southern Ukraine decimated.

“Our position is well known,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday as the talks got underway.

EU member states agree Ukraine may use 90bn-euro loan to buy arms from close allies

“Until the Kyiv regime makes the appropriate decisions, the special military operation continues,” he said, using Russia’s term for the offensive.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had on Tuesday said that Russia’s strikes on Kyiv’s energy system “confirms that attitudes in Moscow have not changed: they continue to bet on war and the destruction of Ukraine, and they do not take diplomacy seriously.” “The work of our negotiating team will be adjusted accordingly,” he said, without elaborating.

US President Donald Trump, however, said Russian President Vladimir Putin had “kept his word” with a week-long promise not to hit the capital or critical energy facilities.

“It’s a lot, you know, one week, we’ll take anything, because it’s really, really cold over there,” Trump said on Tuesday.

“I want him to end the war,” Trump added of Putin. Asked if he was disappointed Putin had not extended the pause, he replied: “I would like him to.”

Sticking point in talks

The main sticking point in the talks to settle the conflict is the long-term fate of territory in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow is demanding that Kyiv pull its troops out of swathes of the Donbas, including heavily fortified cities atop vast natural resources, as a precondition of any deal.

It also wants international recognition that land seized in the invasion belongs to Russia.

Kyiv has said the conflict should be frozen along the current front line and has rejected a unilateral pull-back of forces.

Ukraine’s top negotiator Rustem Umerov confirmed the talks had started Wednesday in a trilateral format.

Trump has despatched his ubiquitous envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to try to corral the sides to an agreement.

Ukraine’s Umerov is seen a shrewd negotiator, hailed by colleagues as a worker of diplomatic “wonders”.

Russia’s top negotiator is military intelligence director Igor Kostyukov, a career naval officer sanctioned in the West over his role in the Ukraine invasion.

Russia occupies around 20 per cent of Ukraine, but Kyiv still controls around one-fifth of the Donetsk region.

EU loan for Ukraine

In a related development, EU countries on Wednesday agreed Ukraine could use a new 90-billion-euro ($118 billion) loan to buy a greater share of weapons from close allies like Britain, if those countries contribute financially, officials said.

The EU said in a statement key allies could gain more access if they pay “a fair and proportionate financial contribution to the costs arising from borrowing”.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2026



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