Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a trilateral meeting involving Ukraine, Russia and the United States will take place next week in the United Arab Emirates.
“There is an arrangement to hold a trilateral meeting at an appropriate level in the Emirates next week,” Zelenskyy said Sunday. He added that February would be marked by “quite intense foreign policy activity,” and said Ukraine expects the United States to play an active role — particularly in efforts to de-escalate the conflict by reducing strikes.
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Zelenskyy said confidence in the peace process would depend largely on what Washington can achieve. “Much depends on what the U.S. can do so that people trust both the process and the outcomes,” he said.
His comments came as Ukrainian officials reported that a Russian drone strike hit a bus carrying mineworkers in the Dnipropetrovsk region on Sunday, killing at least 15 people. The Associated Press reported seven others were injured.
Zelenskyy described the strike as a crime that underscored Russia’s responsibility for escalating the war. “Evil must be stopped,” he said.
The attack came hours after Zelenskyy announced that the next round of peace talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations would take place Wednesday and Thursday. He said last week that recent discussions had been “constructive.”
“The central focus of the discussions was the possible parameters for ending the war,” Zelenskyy said, adding that American monitoring and oversight would be essential to ensuring lasting security.
Zelenskyy told The Associated Press that the talks in Abu Dhabi would likely mark the first trilateral format in a “quite a long while” to include not only diplomats but also military representatives from the United States, Ukraine and Russia.
The Dnipro strike occurred days after U.S. President Donald Trump said the Kremlin had agreed to temporarily halt attacks on Kyiv and other major cities, as freezing temperatures have deepened hardship across Ukraine.
