Kyiv-Moscow talks: Day 2 ends in stalemate

Kyiv: Ukraine and Russia ended a second day of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi on Saturday without a deal but with future meetings mooted after overnight Russian airstrikes that knocked out power for over a million Ukrainians amid subzero winter cold.Statements after the conclusion of the talks did not indicate that any agreements had been reached, but Moscow and Kyiv both said they were open to further dialogue. "The central focus of the discussions was the possible parameters for ending the war," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X after the meeting."As a result of the meetings held over these days, all sides agreed to report back in their capitals on each aspect of the negotiations and to coordinate further steps with their leaders," he said, adding that further meetings could take place as early as next week.A UAE government spokesperson said there was face-to-face engagement between Ukraine and Russia - rare in the almost four-year-old war triggered by a full-scale Russian invasion - and tackled "outstanding elements" of Washington's peace framework. A spokesperson for Ukraine's lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, told reporters just before 1300 GMT that the talks had concluded.'Putin acting cynically'The bombardment of Ukraine's capital Kyiv and its second largest city Kharkiv by hundreds of Russian drones and missiles prompted Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha-who was not at the talks-to accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of acting "cynically". "This barbaric attack once again proves that Putin's place is not at (US President Donald Trump's) Board of Peace, but in the dock of the special tribunal," Sybiha wrote on X. "His missiles hit not only our people, but also the negotiation table."Saturday was set to be the last day of the talks, billed by Zelenskyy as the first trilateral meeting under the US-mediated peace process. The UAE statement said the talks took place in a "constructive and positive atmosphere. "(They) included direct engagement between Russian and Ukrainian representatives on outstanding elements of the US-proposed peace framework, as well as confidence-building measures aimed at supporting progress toward a comprehensive agreement," it added.Kyiv is under mounting Trump administration pressure to make concessions to reach a deal to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.Zelenskyy had said on Friday that it was too early to draw conclusions from the first day of meetings in Abu Dhabi, and he had urged Russia to show it was ready for peace. US peace envoy Steve Witkoff said at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos this week that a lot of progress had been made in the talks and only one sticking point remained. However, Russian officials have sounded more sceptical.Russia wants DonbasAfter Saturday's talks, Zelenskyy said the US delegation had raised the issue of "potential formats for formalising the parameters for ending the war, as well as the security conditions required to achieve this". Ahead of the discussions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday Russia had not dropped its insistence on Ukraine yielding all of its eastern area of Donbas, the industrial heartland grouping the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.