Europe Asia News

The rising tension around potential US strikes on Iran has added new uncertainty to the plans of Ukrainian and Russian senior officials to meet in Abu Dhabi this weekend for another round of talks.

Zelensky said in statements released by his office on Friday, "It is very important for us that everyone we agreed on attends the meeting because everyone is expecting feedback," he told journalists.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that senior representatives of President Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, will not participate in the weekend meeting in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, Moscow announced that Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, would travel to Miami on Saturday to meet with members of the Trump administration.

Before the possible talks, Ukraine continues to experience one of the coldest winters in decades, with many people living without electricity and heating, while a noticeable decrease in attacks between Russia and Ukraine has been observed.

Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that Vladimir Putin agreed to suspend strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure for a week.

The Kremlin accepted the request but declined to comment on whether Russian President Putin had agreed to it. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that the measure would end on Sunday.

On Friday, Zelensky noted that "there were really no attacks on energy facilities from Thursday night to Friday." "Ukraine is ready to avoid reciprocal attacks, and today we did not attack Russian energy facilities," he said.