Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that a new round of trilateral talks with Moscow and Washington is scheduled for February 4–5 in the United Arab Emirates, amid a recent surge of deadly Russian airstrikes targeting civilian infrastructure.
In his nightly video address on February 1, Zelensky said there is “an agreement to hold a trilateral meeting at an appropriate level… on Wednesday and Thursday in the UAE, as before.”
Initially, there was uncertainty over the timing of the talks, which were first planned for February 1 in the UAE capital. Zelensky said on January 31 that his team was ready for the negotiations but was waiting for a response from the United States.
“I have scheduled a meeting for [February 2] with Rustem Umerov,” Zelensky said, referring to Kyiv’s chief negotiator.
Ukrainian officials aim “to agree on the framework for the talks in Abu Dhabi and prepare everything. By the evening of [February 2], the team will already be on the way for negotiations.”
“February will be a period of intense diplomatic activity on our part, with contacts and meetings starting tomorrow,” he added.
“We expect the American side to be equally active, especially regarding de-escalation measures and reducing attacks. Much depends on what the Americans achieve so that people trust both the process and the outcomes,” Zelensky emphasized.
American and Russian officials did not immediately comment on Zelensky’s statements.
Follow-up Talks
Direct negotiations involving Moscow, Kyiv, and U.S. representatives resumed in Abu Dhabi on January 23–24. Such meetings have been rare since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
On January 30, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Kremlin negotiator Kirill Dmitriev in Miami in what he described as “productive and constructive meetings.”
Witkoff said that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Jared Kushner (former U.S. president Trump’s son-in-law), and government adviser Josh Gruenbaum also participated in the Florida discussions.
Despite what U.S. officials saw as positive momentum in renewed diplomatic efforts, Russian airstrikes continued to hit civilian and logistical infrastructure across Ukraine, while temperatures dropped to minus 30°C.
Deadly Drone Strikes
On February 1, Ukrainian officials reported that two separate drone strikes killed at least 18 people in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, injuring at least seven others.
Sixteen people were killed when a Russian drone struck near a bus in Pavlohrad, while two others died when another drone hit a private home in the regional capital, Dnipro.
The bus belonged to DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, and the victims in Pavlohrad were miners returning from their shifts.
Details of the attacks could not be independently verified immediately.
Maternity Hospital Targeted
Separately, airstrikes hit the nearby city of Zaporizhia shortly after midnight, injuring at least six people at a maternity hospital, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov.
Two of the injured women were undergoing medical examinations at the time of the strike. In a Telegram post, Fedorov described the attack as “another testament to a war directed against life.”
Later, a second strike in the city, located less than 50 km from the southern front line, injured three more people, including a young boy.
These continued attacks followed remarks by Donald Trump on January 29, claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally promised him a one-week pause in airstrikes against Kyiv and other cities.
Katarina Mathernova, EU Ambassador to Ukraine, strongly criticized the Kremlin’s recent actions on Facebook:
“Is this what a ‘ceasefire’ should look like? Explosions. Dead civilians. Destroyed energy and transport infrastructure. All while the world talks about a possible ceasefire,” she wrote.
