Trilateral talks in UAE were 'substantive, productive': Ukraine
Russia claimed that its forces had taken control of the village of Stepanivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region and the village of Staroukrainka in Zaporizhzhia region.
Ukraine has said talks with Russian and US delegations in Abu Dhabi, trying to broker an end to the four-year Ukraine war, were "substantive and productive".
"The work was substantive and productive, focused on concrete steps and practical solutions," Ukraine's top negotiator Rustem Umerov said on social media after the first day of discussions on Wednesday, without providing further details.
The negotiations are to continue on Thursday.
Several rounds of diplomacy between the sides have failed to strike a deal on ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II, which began in February 2022.
A massive Russian drone and missile barrage in the run-up to the talks, pounding Ukraine's energy grid and knocking out power and heating in temperatures far below freezing, threatened to overshadow any chances of progress in the Emirati capital.
"Each such Russian strike confirms that attitudes in Moscow have not changed: they continue to bet on war and the destruction of Ukraine, and they do not take diplomacy seriously," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday.
"The work of our negotiating team will be adjusted accordingly," he said, without elaborating.
Russia claimed that its forces had taken control of the village of Stepanivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region and the village of Staroukrainka in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.
Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement that units of the Yuzhnoy troop group seized Stepanivka “as a result of active operations”, while forces from the Vostok troop group advanced deeper into Ukrainian defences and captured Staroukrainka.
The villages are located near active front-line areas in eastern and southeastern Ukraine.