“MASSIVE” RUSSIAN ATTACK
Thousands of people in Kyiv went without heating in sub-zero temperatures due to Russian strikes.
The European Union, which has sent hundreds of generators to Ukraine, has accused Moscow of “deliberately depriving civilians of heat”.
“Kyiv is under a massive enemy attack,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on Telegram, reporting the latest overnight strikes. He added that several non-residential buildings had been hit.
Fires broke out in several buildings hit by drone debris while heat and water services in parts of the capital were interrupted, he said.
Zelenskyy said Russia had launched “over 370 attack drones and 21 missiles of various types”.
The strikes left 88,000 families temporarily without power in Kyiv, according to DTEK, Ukraine’s largest energy provider.
Meanwhile, the head of the northern Chernigiv region, Vyacheslav Chaus, said “hundreds of thousands” were without electricity after Russian strikes on a critical energy facility in the Nizhyn district.
Zelensky last week declared a “state of emergency” in the energy sector, battered by relentless Russian strikes on heat and electricity supplies.
While diplomacy to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II has gained pace, Moscow and Kyiv appear deadlocked over the issue of territory.
DONBAS TERRITORY DISPUTE
Hours after Putin met Witkoff – and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – in Moscow, the Kremlin said its demand that Kyiv withdraw from the eastern Donbas region still stood.
“Russia’s position is well known on the fact that Ukraine, Ukrainian armed forces, have to leave the territory of the Donbas,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“This is a very important condition,” he added.
Kyiv has rejected such terms. “The Donbas is a key issue,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Friday, ahead of the talks.
Zelenskyy said he and Trump had agreed on post-war security guarantees in Davos.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are last known to have met face-to-face in Istanbul last summer, in talks that ended only in deals to exchange captured soldiers.
The Abu Dhabi meeting is the first time they have faced each other to talk about the Trump administration’s plan.
Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to get full control of eastern Ukraine by force if talks fail.
Trump has in the past pressured Ukraine to agree to terms that Kyiv sees as capitulation.
“I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done,” he said on Wednesday.
“If they don’t, they’re stupid – that goes for both of them.”
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