Ukraine says U.S.-brokered talks with Russia have not been canceled despite weekend strikes on Iran that President Volodymyr Zelensky linked to the United States and Israel, though Kyiv is weighing a change of venue from Abu Dhabi to Turkey or Switzerland.
Zelensky told reporters the meeting, tentatively set for March 5-6 in the United Arab Emirates capital, remains on the calendar but may be relocated “due to the ongoing hostilities.” He added, “If there are difficulties with Abu Dhabi because of missiles and drones, then I think we have Turkey, we have Switzerland. We will definitely support any of these three venues for the meeting.”
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was in Russia’s interests to continue peace talks and reiterated Moscow’s stated preference for a diplomatic settlement to end the four-year war. Despite multiple rounds of contacts, however, the sides remain far apart, with Zelensky again rejecting Moscow’s demand that Ukraine withdraw from the roughly 20% of the eastern Donetsk region Russia has not captured.
The diplomatic push comes as Russia presses its campaign of air and missile strikes. Ukrainian authorities said at least five people were killed overnight. Three died in Kramatorsk, a key eastern city and Ukrainian stronghold, according to the local military administration. The body of a 55-year-old man was recovered from the rubble of a house in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, and a woman was killed in the northern Chernihiv region, officials said.
Zelensky said Ukraine has weathered a critical winter despite sustained Russian drone and missile attacks on energy infrastructure and warned that Moscow is preparing new strikes on infrastructure, logistics and water supplies. He called bolstering air defenses a top priority for Kyiv ahead of the expected renewed assault on civilian and industrial targets.
He said hostilities in the Middle East have not yet affected weapons deliveries to Ukraine from its allies. “But, of course, we understand that a long war — if it is to be long — and the intensity of the fighting will affect the amount of air defense equipment we receive,” Zelensky said, underscoring the strain on global stocks of interceptors and launch systems.
Ukraine is prepared to share its wartime air-defense experience with partners but has received no direct requests to do so from Britain or others, he said.
Washington has been prodding both sides toward exploratory contacts, even as the war grinds on along a 1,000-kilometer front and in cities repeatedly targeted far from the battlefield. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, unleashing Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II and causing hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties on both sides, according to widely cited estimates.
Zelensky cast the prospective talks as “important” and said Ukraine’s position has strengthened after surviving winter under fire. Still, there was no indication of a breakthrough. Kyiv insists that any settlement must respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and security, while Moscow has tied its conditions to control over occupied territories and constraints on Ukraine’s future military alignment.
As both capitals test diplomatic channels, the nightly reports of strikes and air alerts underscore the fragile context in which any meeting would occur. Whether in Abu Dhabi, Turkey or Switzerland, the next round — if it proceeds — will unfold under the shadow of continued bombardment and unresolved battlefield calculations.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
