Abu Dhabi (AFP) – Russia threatened on Wednesday to continue hostilities in Ukraine if kyiv did not accept its conditions, as a new round of negotiations in the presence of the Americans opened in Abu Dhabi to try to end four years of war.

Published on: 02/04/2026 - 03:55 Modified on: 02/09/2026 - 07:25

"The work has been substantial and productive, focused on concrete measures and practical solutions," Ukraine's chief negotiator Rustem Umerov said after the end of the first day of talks, which are due to resume on Thursday.

In his evening message, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expected a new prisoner exchange with Russia "in the near future."

“55,000” Ukrainian soldiers killed

While the worst armed conflict on the European continent since the Second World War has already left tens, if not hundreds, of thousands dead on both sides and millions of Ukrainians have found refuge abroad, Mr. Zelensky also assured that the official toll was 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed.

Shortly after the opening of negotiations in the United Arab Emirates, Moscow again insisted that Ukraine must comply with its demands, reinforcing doubts about the chances of success of the diplomatic efforts carried out for months under the leadership of American President Donald Trump.

“As long as the kyiv regime does not make the appropriate decision, the special military operation will continue,” warned Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, using the euphemism used in Russia to describe the invasion of Ukraine.

The spokesperson for Ukrainian diplomacy, Gueorguiï Tykhy, for his part stressed that his country expected above all from these meetings to "know what the Russians and the Americans really want", specifying that they concerned "military and politico-military questions".

The railway tracks targeted

One of Russia's main demands is for Ukrainian soldiers to withdraw from areas under their control in the eastern Donetsk region.

kyiv has so far refused to abandon these territories, where its main defenses against Russian assaults are located.

This intransigent speech from Moscow was accompanied by the resumption on Tuesday, after a brief pause obtained at the request of the American president, of massive Russian strikes on Ukraine.

These bombings, which involved hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, targeted energy sites and led to new heating and electricity cuts for hundreds of thousands of homes, in temperatures approaching -20°C.

Also targeted by the Russians, the Ukrainian railways: "the objective is very clear. If you place the recent attacks on the railways on a map, there is an attempt to cut off certain regions of Ukraine and to sow fear in the minds of the populations in order to make them believe that they are no longer connected" to the rest of the country, declared to AFP on Wednesday the director of the Ukrainian national railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, Oleksandr Pertsovskyi.

“In recent months,” these Russian attacks have become more and more precise,” he noted.

The same day, a Russian strike on a market in the eastern Ukrainian town of Druzhkivka left at least seven dead and 15 injured, according to the regional governor.

“A staging”

American envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner are taking part in the negotiations in Abu Dhabi.

Russians, Ukrainians and Americans had already met in the United Arab Emirates at the end of January for initial discussions, from which kyiv's European allies were excluded. Previous talks in Türkiye in 2025 had yielded few tangible results.

The EU ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova, assured AFP on Wednesday that it was "strategically important for Europe to participate at some point in the negotiations".

Despite this diplomatic ballet, the Ukrainians interviewed by AFP doubt that an agreement could be concluded.

“I think this is all just a show for the public,” said Petro, a resident of kyiv. “We must prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

In Moscow, on the other hand, the Russians interviewed expressed their hope that the war would end.

“Everyone is hopeful, everyone is very optimistic about these negotiations,” said Larissa, a retiree who has family in Ukraine and relatives at the front.

“This has to end one day, everyone has had enough,” agrees Anton, a 43-year-old engineer, while Dmitri, 44, says he wishes “drones would stop flying over our heads and people would stop dying.”

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© 2026 AFP

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