A new round of peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. The negotiations are aimed at ending a nearly four-year-old conflict that has resulted in nearly 2 million casualties on both sides.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on Sunday that the talks would be held on Wednesday and Thursday in Abu Dhabi. An American delegation, including Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, will take part in discussions.
“Ukraine is ready for substantive talks, and we are interested in achieving a result that brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war,” Mr. Zelenskyy wrote on X.
The talks between Kyiv and Moscow will take place amid ongoing Russian strikes on Ukraine’s electrical grid, which have resulted in widespread power outages, and its transportation infrastructure.
“Railway workers are responding and carrying out repairs. [They are] trying to restore everything promptly, and maintaining connectivity between regions,” Mr. Zelenskyy wrote on X.
He said “hundreds” of buildings in Kyiv are currently without power as a result of Russian attacks on civilian targets. The Ukrainian president wants the American negotiators to prod Moscow to reduce the strikes.
Mr. Zelenskyy blamed Russian drones on Sunday for a strike on a bus carrying coal miners in Ternivka in eastern Ukraine that caused numerous casualties.
“We expect the American side to be just as active, particularly when it comes to de-escalation measures — reducing strikes,” he said. “Much depends on what the U.S. can achieve so that people trust both the process and the outcome.
A Russian drone strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro hit a bus carrying mineworkers and killed 15 people, Ukrainian emergency services said Sunday. The strike injured a further seven people and sparked a fire that was subsequently put out, according to the emergency services.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said it owned the bus and accused Russia of carrying out “a large-scale terrorist attack on DTEK mines in the Dnipropetrovsk region,” whose capital is Dnipro.
“The epicenter of one of the attacks was a company bus transporting miners from the enterprise after a shift in the Dnipropetrovsk region,” the company posted on Telegram.
The strike came days after President Trump said the Kremlin had agreed to temporarily halt the targeting of the Ukrainian capital and other cities, as the region suffers under freezing temperatures that have brought widespread hardship to Ukrainians.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal on Sunday called the strike in Dnipro “a cynical and targeted attack on energy sector workers,” and said it occurred near the Ternivska mine east of the city.
— This article is based in part on wire service reports.
