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Zelensky confirms peace delegation will meet Russian officials in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday for second round of talks
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Ukraine, Russia, and America are set to hold the second round of trilateral talks this week to discuss a US-drafted plan to end the war on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The talks were earlier scheduled to take place on Sunday but no reason has been provided from either side for the delay. Zelensky said Ukraine is “interested in ensuring that the outcome brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war”.
“The dates for the next trilateral meetings have been set – February 4 and 5 in Abu Dhabi,” Zelensky said. Officials from Russia and the US are yet to confirm the new dates.
Just hours later, a Russian drone strike killed at least 12 people after it hit a bus carrying mineworkers in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Sunday.
At least another seven mineworkers who were returning from their shift were injured in the attack, which also sparked a fire that was later put out.
Energy firm DTEK, which owned the bus, said that Russian forces had carried out “a large-scale terrorist attack on DTEK mines in the Dnipropetrovsk region”.
Ukraine is receiving two lorries worth of potatoes after Berlin experienced a bumper harvest year with its biggest crop in more than two decades.
The phenomenon has inspired a potato dump in Berlin, as farmers, not wanting their produce to go to waste, have given away their potatoes away to soup kitchens, schools, churches, and the public.
Two lorries worth of spuds have also been delivered to Ukraine.
It comes as the country experiences a brutal winter, with temperatures in some areas dropping to -30C.
Russia has been repeatedly targeting Ukraine’s energy grid, leaving thousands of Ukrainians without power or food.
As we near the resumption of Ukrainian-US-Russian peace talks this week, let’s take a look back at President Zelensky’s warning from Thursday.
A key political ally of Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine has called for a peace deal which prioritises people over land ahead of a major conference in the war torn country on Thursday.
Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv Oblast region in Ukraine, is an emerging name in Ukrainian politics and spoke to The Independent as other governors and mayors get together to discuss where the peace line needs to be drawn in the war with Russia.
Mr Kim headed the Mykolaiv branch of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party during the 2019 elections and was appointed by the Ukrainian president to be regional governor in November 2020.
The Independent’s political editor David Maddox reports:
Russian forces fired a ballistic missile and 171 drones at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force has said.
An Iskander-M ballistic missile launched from temporarily-occupied Crimea was part of the attack, while drones were fired from the Russian cities of Kursk, Oryol, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Millerovo, and occupied Donetsk.
Ukrainian air defences downed 157 drones but eight locations were hit, the air force added.
“As of 09:00, [Ukrainian] air defence forces had destroyed or jammed 157 Shahed, Gerbera and other types of drones,” the air force said in a post on Telegram. “Hits by 1 ballistic missile and 12 UAVs had been recorded at 8 locations.”
Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president and deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said that if the New START treaty expires then the world should be alarmed that the biggest nuclear powers had no limits for the first time in decades.
Signed in 2010 by US president Barack Obama and Medvedev, the New START treaty limited the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550 on each side.
It is due to expire on February 5 and Russian officials have said they have had no official response from Washington on a proposal from Vladimir Putin to stick to existing missile and warhead limits for one more year.
“I don’t want to say that this immediately means a catastrophe and a nuclear war will begin, but it should still alarm everyone,” Medvedev told Reuters news agency, TASS and the WarGonzo Russian war blogger in an interview at his residence outside Moscow.
“The (doomsday) clocks are ticking and they obviously have to speed up,” he said.
At least four people were injured in a Russian drone attack on the Cherkasy region last night.
Ihor Taburets, head of the region’s military administration, said authorities are “recording the fall of enemy drones at several locations” after “fires broke out” as a result of the attack.
Authorities are expected to later release further details about the strike.
A proposal by European powers to deploy Nato-member troops in Ukraine as part of a proposed security guarantee and peace deal was unacceptable for Russia, said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council.
“What kind of guarantee can we talk about if a foreign contingent of unfriendly Nato member states is stationed on the territory of such a state,” Medvedev told said in an interview.
Medvedev said Russia’s terms for ending the conflict were unchanged from 2024 when president Vladimir Putin set them out in a speech at the foreign ministry.
A Ukrainian drone attack has sparked fire and explosions in Russia’s Belgorod region’s city of Stary Oskol.
At least two people were killed in the attack, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
He added that the Ukrainian drones attacked the city and fires were also reported at a residential home. Gladkov said an exploding drone shattered windows in more than three apartment buildings.
Witnesses said at least six loud blasts were reported in the city’s northern and northeastern areas, reported the Kyiv Independent, citing local residents.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said the world was getting very dangerous but claimed Russia did not want to be dragged into a global conflict.
“The situation is very dangerous,” Medvedev said in an interview at his residence outside Moscow. “The pain threshold is decreasing.”
“We are not interested in a global conflict. We’re not crazy. It’s been said a hundred times. Who needs a global conflict?” he said. “Unfortunately, a global conflict cannot be ruled out,” he said.
His comments came as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is about to enter its fifth year in February.
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