President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday after talks with US President Donald Trump in Davos that the terms of security guarantees for Ukraine had been finalised, but that the vital issue of territory in its war with Russia remains unsolved.
In what he said was a positive sign of progress in long-running peace talks to end the four-year conflict, Zelenskiy said negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the US would hold trilateral meetings for the first time in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow.
He also said a deal was almost ready on economic recovery after the war with Russia, a key element of Kyiv-backed proposals to push back on an earlier US peace plan seen as heavily favouring Moscow.
Zelenskiy and Trump – who have met half a dozen times since Trump returned to the White House last year and upended US policy on Ukraine – both said yesterday’s talks were positive.
Asked what his message was for Putin, Trump replied to reporters: “The war has to end.”
Zelenskiy, who did not indicate he discussed territory with Trump, had said earlier this week he would only travel to Davos if he could sign agreements with Trump on US security guarantees and post-war reconstruction funding for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy has been saddled with an energy crisis at home from Russian air strikes that have left millions of Ukrainians across swathes of the capital and other regions without power and heating.
Zelenskiy described Russia’s months-long onslaught as an attempt by Putin to freeze Ukrainians to death.
Invoking Trump’s operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to face charges before a US court, he wondered aloud why Putin was not yet on trial.
US envoy for Ukraine Steve Witkoff had told an audience at the World Economic Forum earlier that good progress was being made in peace talks, after he met with Ukrainian and Russian officials in Davos.
“If both sides want to solve this, we’re going to get it solved,” Witkoff said.
Russia has been cool on the US-led peace push, demanding that Kyiv give up part of its eastern Donetsk region which Moscow has been unable to conquer despite grinding forward on the battlefield.
Russian air strikes hit several parts of Ukraine yesterday.
In the southern region of Odesa, a 17-year-old boy was killed when a drone struck an apartment building, the regional governor said.
Eleven people were also wounded in the central city of Kryvyi Rih when a ballistic missile slammed into a residential building, officials said.
In the capital Kyiv, nearly 3,000 high-rises across the city remained without heating yesterday after Russia’s latest attack earlier this week.
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