Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. file | Image Credit: AP
Next round of Peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations will be held on Wednesday (February 4, 2026) and Thursday (February 5, 2026), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday (February 1, 2026).
Ambassadors from Russia, Ukraine and the US are expected to meet in Abu Dhabi later that day, aiming to conclude the talks. Moscow’s all-out assault on its neighborhood.
“We have a report from our negotiating team. Dates have been set for the next tripartite meetings: Feb. 4 and 5 in Abu Dhabi. Ukraine is ready for substantive talks and we are interested in an outcome that brings us closer to a real and honorable end to the war,” Mr. Zelensky said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate comment from US or Russian officials.
On Saturday (January 31, 2026) afternoon, Russia’s top ambassador Kirill Dmitriev said he had a “constructive meeting with the US peacekeeping delegation” in Florida.
Officials have so far revealed few details of the talks in Abu Dhabi, which are part of a year-long effort by the Trump administration to steer the parties toward a peace deal and end nearly four years of all-out war.
While Ukrainian and Russian officials have agreed in principle with Washington’s calls for compromise, Moscow and Kyiv remain deeply at odds over what a deal should look like.
The central issue is whether Russia should retain or withdraw the areas of Ukraine occupied by its forces, particularly the pre-industrial heartland of Ukraine known as the Donbass, and gain land there that it has not yet captured.
Drones attack Ukrainian maternity hospital
Elsewhere, Russian attack drones hit a maternity hospital in southern Ukraine on Sunday morning (February 1, 2026), the Ukrainian Emergency Service reported. In a Telegram post, the strike injured three women at a hospital in the city of Zaporizhia and sparked a fire in the gynecology reception area, which was later extinguished.
A few days ago, US President Donald Trump said Mr Putin agreed to temporarily halt the targeting of the Ukrainian capital And other cities, the region suffers under freezing temperatures that have brought widespread hardship to Ukrainians.
The Kremlin agreed on Friday (January 30, 2026) to hold off on striking Kyiv until Sunday (February 1, 2026), but refused to reveal any details, making it difficult for an independent assessment of whether the appeasement step had actually taken place.
In the past week, Russia has struck energy assets in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa and Kharkiv in the northeast. It crashed into the Kyiv region on Wednesday, killing two and injuring four.
As of Sunday (February 1, 2026), Russia had launched 90 attack drones, 14 of which hit nine locations, Ukraine’s air force said in a Telegram post. A woman and a man were killed in an overnight drone strike in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, according to Oleksandr Hanja, the head of local administration.
According to a Facebook post by the municipal military administration, Russian shelling hit the city of central Kherson in southern Ukraine shortly after 7 a.m. local time, seriously injuring a 59-year-old woman.
Published – February 01, 2026 06:45 pm IST
