Updates: First day of trilateral talks on Russia-Ukraine war ends in UAE

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For more on how Ukrainians are coping with daily power and heating outages amid freezing temperatures, read our on-the-ground report here.

To read about the Ukrainian resistance movement Atesh, which has claimed acts of sabotage on Russian-controlled territory, check out our report here.

For all our latest coverage of the Ukraine-Russia war, here is our dedicated page.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of the day’s major developments:

• The first round of trilateral talks involving US, Russian, and Ukrainian negotiators in Abu Dhabi have concluded, the Ukrainian presidency has said, with a new round of discussions scheduled for Saturday.
• The Russian Defence Ministry said on Telegram that its forces captured the village of Symynivka, situated about 47km (29 miles) northeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
• Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state grid operator, says there are emergency power outages in most regions of the country following Russia’s latest aerial assault.
• France’s navy has redirected the oil tanker “Grinch” to the port of Marseille-Fos for inspection, suspecting it is part of a fleet of vessels Russia uses to export sanctioned oil, according to the Reuters news agency.

President Putin’s demand that Ukraine surrender the 20 percent it still holds of the Donetsk region of the Donbas – about 5,000sq km (1,900 sq miles) – has proven a major stumbling block to a breakthrough deal.

Zelenskyy refuses to give up land that Russia has not been able to capture in four years of grinding, attritional warfare.

Polls show little appetite among Ukrainians for territorial concessions.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday ‌that Russia’s insistence on Ukraine yielding all of Donbas was “a very important condition”.

A source close to the Kremlin told Reuters that Moscow considers a so-called “Anchorage formula” – which Russia says was agreed between Trump and Putin at a summit in Alaska last August – would hand Russia control of all of Donbas and freeze the current front lines elsewhere in Ukraine’s east and south.

Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions ‌that Moscow said in 2022 it was annexing after referendums rejected by Kyiv and Western nations as bogus. Most countries recognise Donetsk as part of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy has issued a statement after the first day of US-Russia-Ukraine talks in Abu Dhabi, saying “it is still too early to draw conclusions” about the substance of the negotiations.

“By now, our team should already have at least some answers from Russia,” said Zelenskyy. “The key is that Russia must be ready to end the war it started.

“We will see how the conversation develops tomorrow and what results it produces,” Zelenskyy added, noting that he receives regular updates from Ukraine’s negotiating team.

Ukrainian diplomatic team reports almost every hour from the UAE, where a conversation took place today involving the Ukrainian, American, and Russian delegations. They are discussing the parameters for ending the war.
 
By now, our team should already have at least some answers… pic.twitter.com/U1IsDfWWiZ

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 23, 2026

The tripartite talks unfold against a backdrop ⁠of intensified Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy system that have cut power and heating to major cities like Kyiv, as temperatures hover well below freezing.

The head of Ukraine’s top private power producer, Maxim Timchenko, told the Reuters news agency on Friday that the situation was nearing a “humanitarian catastrophe” and that Ukraine needs a ceasefire that halts attacks on energy.

Kyiv’s energy minister said on Thursday that Ukraine’s power grid had endured its most difficult day since a widespread blackout in November 2022, when Russia first began bombing energy infrastructure.

A Russian attack in the southern Ukrainian city of Nikopol has killed a 72-year-old man, according to Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Military Administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.

Attacks throughout Dnipropetrovsk oblast also injured a woman and a 11-year-old girl, said Hanzha.

NATO’s top general, US Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich, is part of President Trump’s team holding three-way negotiations in the UAE on ending the Russia-Ukraine war.

He will be mainly serving as a senior US military representative and has previously attended meetings tied to peace efforts in Geneva, Berlin and Paris, as well as Trump’s summit with Putin last year in Alaska, a spokesperson said in a statement.

Grynkewich is at least the second military official to be part of the negotiations. US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll was also tapped to help with such talks after first acting as a negotiator last November.

On the weekend, a power cut shut down a train line carrying Russian weapons and supplies to the front line through the region of Bryansk in western Russia near the Ukrainian border.

But this was no ordinary blackout. It was caused by a fire at a nearby substation set by an agent of the Ukrainian resistance movement, Atesh.

“Atesh precisely targets the weak points of the enemy’s power grid, paralysing their rear,” the group announced to its 52,000 followers on its Telegram channel.

Read more here.

President Zelenskyy says he has secured a commitment from Trump to supply more Patriot missiles for Ukraine’s air defence system, reports Ukraine’s national news agency Ukrinform.

“I spoke with President Trump, and I received – I won’t say how many – PAC-3 missiles for the Patriot system,” the agency quoted Zelenskyy as saying at a youth forum earlier today.

The US-made Patriot systems have proven to be the most effective weapons to counter Russian missiles during the war in Ukraine.

• November 19, 2025: President Zelenskyy travels to Turkiye in what he said was an effort to jump-start negotiations on ending the war. Reports emerge soon after of a 28-point peace plan drafted by the US and Russia.
• December 2: President Putin meets US special envoy Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Kushner at the Kremlin. Russian envoy Ushakov describes the meeting as constructive, but says much work remains.
• December 14-15: Ukrainian officials, including Zelenskyy, travel to Berlin and hold talks with Witkoff and Kushner. US officials say Washington has agreed to provide Kyiv with unspecified security guarantees.
• December 28: Zelenskyy flies to Florida to meet Trump, who calls Putin before sitting down with the Ukrainian president.
• January 6-7, 2026: Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials attend a summit of the “coalition of the willing” in Paris and hold talks with Witkoff and Kushner.
• January 22: Zelenskyy meets Trump in Davos for about an hour. Trump describes the talks as “very good.” Zelenskyy calls them “productive and meaningful”.
• January 22-23: Putin hosts Witkoff and Kushner for talks in Moscow.
• January 23: Russian, Ukrainian and US delegates hold talks in Abu Dhabi.

France’s navy has diverted the “Grinch” oil tanker, which it suspects of being part of a network of vessels Russia uses to export sanctioned oil, towards the port of Marseille-Fos for investigation, the Reuters news agency is reporting.

The navy initially seized the Comoros-flagged tanker yesterday in the western Mediterranean after it departed Russia’s port of Murmansk earlier this month. French authorities suspect the vessel of operating under a false flag that belongs to Russia’s “shadow fleet”.

Despite extensive EU sanctions against Russia, Moscow has managed to keep selling millions of barrels ⁠of oil to countries such as India and China, often at discounted prices.

Much of the oil is carried by what is known as ‌a shadow fleet of vessels operating outside of the Western maritime industry.

Let’s get you up to speed with the latest developments:

• The first trilateral talks involving delegations from Russia, the US and Ukraine have started in Abu Dhabi.
• The talks will continue tomorrow, WAM news agency is reporting.
• Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy says he “held consultations” with his full negotiating team shortly before the talks.
• The EU is preparing to send nearly 450 emergency generators to Ukraine after massive Russian strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure during a harsh winter.
• Ukraine’s state-owned grid operator, Ukrenergo, reports that most regions of the country are experiencing emergency power cuts following Russia’s latest aerial attack.