Ukraine peace talks set for next week as cold sweeps country
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People lining up at a bus stop during sub-zero temperatures in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Jan 31.
PHOTO: REUTERS
KYIV – US-backed trilateral talks involving Ukraine and Russia will take place next week in Abu Dhabi, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Feb 1 as Ukrainians face uncertainty over the fate of an energy ceasefire with Russia amid plunging temperatures.
Kyiv is under US pressure
The first round of negotiations took place in late January, but led to no new movement on the vital question of territory, with Moscow still demanding that Kyiv cede more land in its war-torn east, which it refuses to do.
The new talks will take place on Feb 4 and 5, and Ukraine, struggling to stop grinding Russian advances on the battlefield, is ready for a “substantive discussion”, said Mr Zelensky.
“Ukraine is ready for a substantive discussion, and we are interested in ensuring that the outcome brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war,” he wrote on social media platform X.
In the capital Kyiv, 1,000 apartment buildings remained without heating on Feb 1, said Mayor Vitali Klitschko, as a new wave of bitter cold swept across much of Ukraine.
Temperatures in the city on Feb 1 hovered around minus 15 deg C, as workers raced to restore heating to hundreds out of the nearly 3,500 high-rises affected by a widespread grid malfunction
Officials did not directly link it to war damage, but the resulting blackouts, which spread to neighbouring Moldova, underlined the vulnerability of Ukraine’s energy system after months of Russian attacks.
The Kremlin said two days ago that it agreed to halt strikes on energy infrastructure until Feb 1 at the request of US President Donald Trump, and Kyiv said it would reciprocate.
Ukraine said the suspension was supposed to last until Feb 6.
Russia and Ukraine have not reported major strikes on their energy systems in recent days, though Mr Zelensky said on Feb 1 that Russia was attempting “to destroy logistics and connectivity between cities and communities” through ongoing air attacks.
In south-eastern Ukraine, two people were killed overnight in a drone strike on a residential building in the city of Dnipro, and six people were wounded in an attack on a maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia, regional officials said.
Temperatures are expected to drop even further on Feb 2, to well below minus 20 deg C in Kyiv.
Ukrainian private energy firm DTEK said on Feb 1 that it had restored power to 300,000 households in the southern coastal region of Odesa, which was hit hard by the malfunction.
Grid operator Ukrenergo said late on Jan 31 that planned outages would be in force throughout the entire country.
Mr Anatoliy Veresenko, a 65-year-old veteran who was out for a run at a park in Kyiv, said he was warily anticipating new attacks and did not place much hope in the peace process.
“Talks are talks. We hope for peace, but we still need to fight and secure victory.” REUTERS
