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Ukrainian president says talks with Russia and the US may be delayed while Trump focuses on ‘situation with Iran’
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested that a second round of three-way peace talks with the US and Russia may not go ahead tomorrow as planned.
Delegates from the US, Russia and Ukraine met last week to iron out their respective differences in order to move towards securing a peace deal with a follow-up to be held this weekend in Abu Dhabi.
However, Zelensky hinted that the follow-up planned for Sunday could be delayed with Donald Trump’s attention focussed elsewhere on Iran.
“From our point of view, something is happening in the situation between the United States and Iran, and those developments could affect the timing,” Zelensky said.
Trump said earlier that Russian president Vladimir Putin had agreed to not attack Ukrainian energy infrastructure this weekend at a time when the war-hit nation is experiencing particularly harsh winter conditions.
Ukraine has said it will not attack Russia’s energy grid in exchange, but that Moscow has continued to strike other civilian targets instead. The Kremlin has said the brief and limited ceasefire will end on Sunday.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky raised the possibility of a delay in the planned peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow, mediated by Washington, initially scheduled to take place tomorrow.
Zelensky attributed the potential delay to the ongoing situation between the US and Iran.
“I don’t know when the next meeting will be,” the Ukrainian president said, adding that the date and location may change due to the “situation with the US and Iran”.
“From our point of view, something is happening in the situation between the United States and Iran, and those developments could affect the timing,” he said.
China’s People’s Liberation Army has called on Beijing to develop its own indigenous satellite networks after observing that such constellations have provided Kyiv a “decisive advantage” against invading Russian forces.
Kyiv’s satellite network, including those operated by US firm SpaceX, has offered “asymmetric transparency” in Ukraine to continuously observe Russian forces, while Russia does not have the same ability, Chinese experts say.
There’s also an observed shift in approach from anti-satellite weapons, deemed economically inefficient, to softer measures targeting networks, terminals, and services, they say.
Russia’s hardline lawmakers are demanding that the Kremlin use more powerful weapons to achieve its war goals in Ukraine, the speaker of the Russian parliament’s lower chamber said yesterday.
“Our troops are advancing. State Duma deputies insist on the use of more powerful ‘weapons of retribution’,” parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin wrote on Telegram.
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to temporarily halt strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure, though there are differences over the timeframe for the moratorium.
After Moscow and Kyiv agreed to halt strikes on each other’s energy infrastructure until Sunday, there’s been a shift by the Russian army toward strikes on Ukraine’s logistics, the Ukrainian president said.
“There were no strikes on energy facilities last night, but yesterday afternoon our energy infrastructure in several regions was hit. We are now observing a shift by the Russian army toward strikes on logistics,” Zelensky said.
“Drone attacks on ordinary residential areas in cities are also continuing. Furthermore, a ballistic missile was used against the Kharkiv region – warehouses belonging to a civilian production facility were damaged, and this is an American company,” he said.
While the Kremlin said it agreed to US president Donald Trump’s request to halt strikes on energy targets, it has indicated that the pause will end on Sunday.
“Ukraine is ready in reciprocal terms to refrain from strikes and today we did not strike at Russian energy facilities,” he said.
Kyiv held a “high-priority” meeting yesterday on advancing its short-range air defences against drones, the Ukrainian president said.
“First, protection against Russian drones must be reinforced in our cities, such as Kherson and Nikopol, as well as in the border communities of the Sumy region, where the Russians have essentially set up an ongoing ‘safari’ against civilians,” Zelensky said in post on X.
“The second task is scaling up our counteraction against ‘shaheds’ and other Russian attack drones,” he said, adding that the structure of a new command to oversee this area of air defence has been approved.
Russian forces executed multiple Ukrainian border guards who surrendered following a cross-border attack in Chernihiv Oblast in December, a member of Kyiv’s border unit said.
There has been a marked increase in extrajudicial executions of Ukrainian prisoners-of-war (POWs) since late 2024 in violation of international law, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Russian military command is also endorsing such war crimes, ISW said.
The Kherson Oblast occupation administration has confirmed that it sent nearly 600 children from the occupied region to the “Lan” children’s camp in Russia’s Adygea Republic over the course of 2025.
Adygea Republic head Murat Kumpilov said the republic places special emphasis on the development of children’s “moral qualities”.
Similar transfers of children have been confirmed from occupied Henichesk and other parts of Kherson to camps in Russia between 2022 and 2024, with these camps promoted as summer vacations. But observers view these camps as an effort to indoctrinate Ukrainian children.
Legal experts have classified such forced deportation of children from Ukraine to places like camps as a war crime.
Rejecting the Kremlin’s proposal to hold peace talks in Moscow, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has instead invited his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to come to Kyiv instead for negotiations “if he dares”.
“I can just as well invite him to Kyiv, let him come. I’m openly inviting him, if he dares,” Zelensky said yesterday during a briefing with journalists.
The Ukrainian president rejected holding peace talks in either Russia or Belarus, saying Moscow was the aggressor and Minsk was its partner. He has said he is happy to attend a summit in any other country where his delegation’s security could be guaranteed.
“We are serious about the need to end the war. Any real format for a meeting of leaders is suitable,” Zelensky said.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he believes a deal is close to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he thinks “we are getting close” to an agreement.
He did not provide details.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Friday that Russian forces launched seven attacks on Ukrainian rail infrastructure over the past 24 hours.
“Russia is deliberately striking Ukraine’s logistics routes. This is intentional terror aimed at people and civilian transport,” Svyrydenko wrote in English on the X social media platform.
“Over the past 24 hours alone, the enemy carried out seven drone attacks on railway facilities.”
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