Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Swipe for next article
Zelensky said talks will focus on the status of the eastern Donbas region
Removed from bookmarks
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
The Kremlin has reiterated its “very important condition” that Ukraine give up the Donbas region, ahead of the first three-way talks with the US since the war began.
The Abu Dhabi talks, which Volodymyr Zelensky m hopes will prove to be a “step towards ending the war”, mark the first trilateral talks between the countries as continue searching for an elusive agreement on territory,
Talks set to focus on the status of the eastern Donbas region, Mr Zelensky told reporters on Friday morning, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk region, partly – but not entirely – occupied by Russian forces.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It is well known that Russia’s position is that Ukraine and the Ukrainian armed forces should leave the territory of Donbas, they must be withdrawn from there. This is a very important condition.”
The talks come hours after marathon late-night talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump‘s envoys, described as “frank” and “constructive” by the Kremlin, which concluded at around 4am in Moscow.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have said the talks will be attended by military intelligence officials. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are expected to mediate.
Britain’s Royal Navy shadowed a Russian warship and oil tanker as they sailed through the English Channel in a two-day operation coordinated, it has said.
The navy said two patrol ships, supported by a Wildcat helicopter, were dispatched to intercept the Russian warship Boikiy and accompanying oil tanker MT General Skobelev as they headed north, before handing the monitoring over to a Nato ally.
The operation comes a day after Britain said it provided support to a French operation to board a sanctioned Russian oil tanker as it passed through the Straits of Gibraltar, in a bid to choke off the funds that fuel Russian’s invasion of Ukraine.
Britain’s navy routinely conducts shadowing missions to monitor any potential threats to national security, including to critical infrastructure such as undersea cables or pipelines.
The two sides cannot agree on the future of the Donetsk region, one of two regions which comprise Donbas. Russian forces already control nearly all of Luhansk, the other region.
Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the roughly 20 per cent, or 5,000 square km (1,900 square miles) of Donetsk, which Russian forces have so far not managed to take on the battlefield in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance.
But Volodymyr Zelensky has said he sees no reason to gift Putin land which is Ukraine currently controls. Previous US-Russian proposals which included Ukraine ceding the land were rejected outright in Kyiv and the rest of Europe.
Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow said in 2022 it was annexing after referendums rejected by Kyiv and Western nations as a sham.
Most countries recognise Donetsk as part of Ukraine. Putin says Donetsk is part of Russia’s “historical lands”.
Poland is sending hundreds of generators to Ukraine, authorities and fundraisers said on Friday, as Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure leave citizens facing a bitter winter without heat or electricity.
Russia’s onslaught on Ukraine’s energy system has led to power and water outages in Kyiv that typically last three to four times longer than in previous winters. Temperatures in the capital at night have plunged as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius.
“Given the dire situation in Ukraine… prime minister Donald Tusk has ordered equipment to protect civilians from the effects of freezing temperatures,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Members of the public in Poland have so far donated over 5.8 million zlotys ($1.62 million) to a fundraising campaign to buy generators for Kyiv.
“For us, it is a gesture of support – for them, a real chance to survive the winter,” fundraisers said on their website.
The Interior Ministry said that 379 power generators and 18 heaters will be delivered to Ukraine from the Government Agency for Strategic Reserves, with another 447 power generators provided using European Union funds.
The Polish capital, Warsaw, is also donating 90 generators to Kyiv.
Russian Admiral Igor Kostyukov is set to head Moscow’s team at trilateral security talks with the US and Ukraine on Friday in Abu Dhabi, as part of efforts to reach a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
What do we know about Kostyukov?
Kostyukov is the director of Russia’s military intelligence organisation, known as the GRU. Born in 1961, he received a naval education and went on to serve as a military diplomat, which included a posting as a military attache to the Russian embassy in Greece in 2004.
After he was transferred to the GRU, Kostyukov participated in operations in Syria, according to the RBC newspaper. In 2018, he became acting head of the GRU upon the illness of his boss, Igor Korobov, and full-time head following Korobov’s death. He was the GRU’s first head with a naval background and became an admiral in 2019.
He was a member of a Russian delegation that met with Ukrainian counterparts in May 2025 in Istanbul, the first face-to-face talks between the warring sides in three years.
Ukraine has ordered 18 IRIS-T air defence systems made by German missile maker Diehl Defence and aims to purchase more firing units in future, Diehl Defence CEO Helmut Rauch said on Friday.
Speaking at a Handelsblatt conference in Berlin, Rauch said nine IRIS-T firing units were being operated in Ukraine at the moment.
Diehl Defence is ramping up production of IRIS-T missiles to 2000 per year, he added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, speaking ahead of the three-way security talks in Abu Dhabi, said that it is Moscow’s well-known position that Ukrainian army should leave the entire territory of Donbas.
But Peskov declined to go into any further details of the talks.
“It is well known that Russia’s position is that Ukraine and the Ukrainian armed forces should leave the territory of Donbas, they must be withdrawn from there. This is a very important condition,” Peskov said.
We can bring you more detail from Volodymyr Zelensky’s briefing to journalists on WhatsApp this morning.
Discussing the talks, he said it’s “a step – hopefully towards ending the war – but different things can happen”.
He also clarified that talks will focus on the status of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, according to the BBC.
“The Donbas issue is key. It will be discussed as will be the modality of how the three sides see it,” he said.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that its forces had taken control of the village of Symynivka in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported.
The Independent could not independently confirm the battlefield report.
We’ve heard more from Volodymyr Zelensky, who discussed with reporters Russia’s proposal to use frozen Russian assets to help fund reconstruction in its own territory – in particular the Kursk region.
This is “nonsense”, the Ukrainian president said.
Speaking to reporters in a WhatsApp media chat, he added that Kyiv would “fight” to be able to use all frozen Russian assets to fund post-war recovery inside Ukraine.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in