Negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the United States pressed on with their second round of peace talks Thursday in the United Arab Emirates, with little made public so far other than an announcement of a planned exchange of prisoners of war.
Russia launched another attack on Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, early Thursday, though it was smaller than the devastating strikes on Ukraine’s power grid early Tuesday. In that attack, Russia fired five ballistic missiles at one thermal power plant in Kyiv, almost destroying it.
The trilateral negotiations lasted for about five and a half hours Wednesday. Officials did not say what was discussed behind closed doors, but the delegations in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates, had been expected to talk about the two main obstacles to any peace deal: the fate of Ukrainian-controlled territory in the east that Russia wants and how Ukraine’s security would be guaranteed if Russia again attacks.
Photographs released by the Emirati government Wednesday showed Rustem Umerov, who leads Ukraine’s delegation and is the secretary of the country’s National Security Council, and Kyrylo Budanov, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, seated with other Ukrainian officials at tables set up in a U shape. Facing them was the Russian delegation, made up of military intelligence figures.
At a third table between the Russians and the Ukrainians sat the American delegation, including Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy; Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law; and Daniel P. Driscoll, the Army secretary.
The trilateral negotiations, first held over two days in January, are the most public sign of progress so far in Mr. Trump’s push to negotiate an end to four years of war after Russia’s full-scale invasion, although there are significant hurdles to any deal.
On Wednesday evening, Mr. Umerov described the first day of the second round of talks as “meaningful” and said negotiators focused on “practical solutions.”
In a speech Wednesday night, Mr. Zelensky did not talk about specifics from the talks, but he said he had talked to the negotiating team and expected an exchange of prisoners in the near future between Russia and Ukraine. The most recent exchange of prisoners was in early October.
Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contributed reporting.
Kim Barker is a Times reporter writing in-depth stories about the war in Ukraine.
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