Talks with US and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi have been constructive however main challenges stay, Kremlin says | EUROtoday

Negotiations geared toward ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are yielding obvious indicators of progress, however main challenges stay on the trail to a closing settlement, a senior Kremlin official mentioned Monday.

Talks between envoys from Ukraine, Russia and the United States in latest days in Abu Dhabi have been constructive and one other spherical is deliberate for subsequent week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov informed journalists.

He reported no main breakthrough thus far, nevertheless, and added: “The very fact that these contacts have begun in a constructive way can be assessed positively, but there is still serious work ahead.”

Officials revealed few particulars of the talks held on Friday and Saturday, which have been a part of a yearlong effort by the Trump administration to steer the edges towards a peace deal and finish virtually 4 years of all-out struggle.

While Ukrainian and Russian officers have agreed in precept with Washington’s requires a compromise, Moscow and Kyiv differ deeply over what an settlement ought to appear like.

Meanwhile, the grinding struggle of attrition alongside the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) entrance line snaking by jap and southern Ukraine has dragged on, and Ukrainian civilians are enduring one other winter of hardship after Russian bombardment of cities within the rear.

U.S. President Donald Trump has set out deadlines for an settlement and threatened extra sanctions on Moscow, however Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently hasn’t budged from his public calls for.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy additionally described the Abu Dhabi talks as constructive. He added Sunday {that a} doc setting out U.S. safety ensures for Ukraine in a postwar situation is “100% ready,” though it nonetheless must be formally signed.

Kyiv has insisted on postwar American safety commitments as a part of any broader peace settlement with Moscow after Russia’s 2014 unlawful annexation of Crimea and assist for separatist rebels in jap Ukraine, adopted by its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Zelenskyy has acknowledged that there are elementary variations between Ukrainian and Russian positions, although he mentioned final week that peace proposals are “nearly ready.”

A central difficulty is whether or not Russia ought to hold or withdraw from areas of Ukraine its forces have occupied, particularly Ukraine’s jap industrial heartland known as the Donbas, and whether or not it ought to get land there that it hasn’t but captured.

Negotiators will return to the United Arab Emirates on Feb. 1 for an additional spherical of talks, in response to a U.S. official, talking on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk to the media. The weekend talks coated a broad vary of army and financial issues and included the potential of a ceasefire earlier than a complete deal, the official mentioned.

Russia’s Defense Ministry mentioned Monday that air defenses downed 40 Ukrainian drones late Sunday and early Monday, together with 34 over the Krasnodar area and 4 over the Sea of Azov.

Krasnodar officers mentioned drone fragments fell on two industrial crops within the metropolis of Slavyansk, sparking fires that have been extinguished. One particular person was injured, they mentioned.

By distinction, Ukraine’s normal workers mentioned an oil refinery within the Krasnodar area was focused by Ukrainian forces. The facility provided the Russian army, it added.

Russian forces launched 138 drones at Ukraine in a single day, 110 of which have been shot down or suppressed, Ukraine’s air drive mentioned, and 21 of them hit targets in 11 places.

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Follow AP’s protection of the struggle in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine