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Zelensky says Russia’s massive attack on Kyiv and other cities has impacted his team’s preparations for today’s peace talks
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Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin “kept his word” by halting attacks on major Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure for one week – despite Russia unleashing its largest ballistic missile attack of the war.
Trump refused to criticise Putin despite Russia‘s massive attack on Kyiv early on Tuesday, which included 71 ballistic missiles, a record since the full scale invasion in February 2022.
The attack came one day before the second round of three-way peace talks between Ukrainian, Russian and US delegations in Abu Dhabi. The talks are currently underway, Ukraine’s top negotiator has confirmed.
“(The pause) was for Sunday to Sunday,” the US president said, speaking to reporters at the White House yesterday. “It opened up and (Putin) hit them hard… He kept his word on that. One week is a lot — we will take anything,” he said.
On being asked if he was disappointed with Putin, Trump said he wants Putin “to end the war”.
Volodymyr Zelensky says the attack has changed the approach his team will take to the talks, and accused Moscow of using Trump’s ceasefire request to stockpile munitions rather than prepare for peace.
The latest round of trilateral peace talks between Kyiv, Moscow and Washington will focus on military matters, Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said on Wednesday, without clarifying exactly what this entails.
Tykhyi said Ukraine wanted to hear feedback from the Russian delegation about issues discussed in previous talks, and that Kyiv wanted to understand what Moscow and Washington are “really ready for”.
Russia faces a steep drop in oil income if Donald Trump successfully pressures India to stop importing Russian crude, analysts and traders have told Reuters new agency.
This will take place because losing its top purchaser of sea exports would force Moscow to slash prices to find other buyers.
Trump on Monday cut US tariffs on Indian goods in a trade deal he said also included provisions for India to halt oil imports from Russia, the world’s second-biggest oil exporter.
The US president had already claimed over the past year that Indian prime minister Narendra Modi agreed to stop buying Russian oil.
India never halted imports, however, citing its need for energy security and for cheap oil. The Kremlin says energy cooperation with India, its second largest oil buyer after China, is strong after Russian president Vladimir Putin visited the country in December 2025.
Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas major Naftogaz said on Wednesday that it has received delivery of almost 100 million cubic metres of US LNG, the first such delivery in 2026.
In a statement on the company’s website, Naftogaz said the LNG was delivered in partnership with Poland’s Orlen, and that further deliveries were expected in February or March.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russian troops would keep fighting in Ukraine until Kyiv made “decisions” that could bring the war to an end.
Russia’s position remains unchanged, which is known to both Ukrainian and US negotiators, Peskov said. A new round of peace talks began in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
Ukraine rejects Russia’s demand that it cede the remainder of its Donbas region, land that Moscow’s forces have not captured in four years of fighting.
The second round of Ukraine-Russia-US talks have begun in Abu Dhabi, Ukraine’s top negotiator has said.
The two-day trilateral meetings come after president Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia had exploited a US-backed energy truce last week to stockpile munitions, attacking Ukraine with a record number of ballistic missiles on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s peace negotiators have arrived in Abu Dhabi and started their first meetings, Interfax-Ukraine reported on Wednesday citing an unnamed source.
Stay with us throughout the day as we bring you all the latest lines on the second round of trilateral peace talks.
As we have been reporting, the second round of peace talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US is scheduled to begin in Abu Dhabi today.
The talks have been confirmed by officials in Washington, Kyiv and Moscow.
On the agenda remains one critical sticking points which has so far prevented a peace deal: territory.
Specifically, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have been unable to come to an agreement over the future of Donetsk.
Russian forces currently control roughly three quarters of the territory of the Donetsk region, and almost all of the Luhansk region – the two regions making up the Donbas. Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin aides have been clear in their desire to control the entirety of the Donbas.
But this would mean Kyiv ceding ground which it currently controls in Donetsk. Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly ruled this out, and Ukrainian officials do not see a reason to give up any land which Russia has not seized by force.
But Russia, as it continues to pound Ukrainian cities and make marginal gains on the frontline, has said it will not budge on this critical demand.
One person was killed and eight were injured in Russian attacks on the Sumy, Donetsk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions, various Ukrainian authorities said on Wednesday.
In Sumy, where 32 villages came under fire by Russian drones on Tuesday, a 40-year-old man was killed and three others were injured.
The attack also caused damage to six apartment buildings, 13 houses, seven cars and other local infrastructure, Ukrainian police said according to Ukrainska Pravda.
Vadym Filashkin, the chief of the Donetsk military administration, said one person had been injured in the Donetsk region.
In Kherson, four people were injured and several buildings suffered damage.
The city of Kharkiv, along with 11 villages in the surrounding region, also came under Russian attack, with around 16 people reported injured, military administration chief Oleh Syniehubov said.
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