Next round of Russia-Ukraine talks set for Feb 1 in Abu Dhabi

WASHINGTON - The next round of US-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place next Sunday in Abu Dhabi, a US official said on Saturday, hailing progress over the last two days of discussions even though they ended on Saturday without a deal.

"We saw a lot of respect in the room between the parties because they were really looking to find solutions," the official told reporters after the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We got to real granular detail and that next Sunday will be, God willing, another meeting where we push this deal towards its final culmination."

The meetings marked the first time that senior envoys from the Trump administration—led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner—sat face-to-face with both Ukrainian and Russian delegations. While no formal ceasefire was signed, the discussions have moved into a technical phase that diplomats describe as "historically substantive."

Ukrainian and Russian delegations held their first direct talks in months in the Emirati capital even as Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles into Kyiv and Kharkiv on Saturday morning, leaving over a million Ukrainians without power, facing sub-zero temperatures and rolling blackouts.