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US, Ukraine and Russia delegations head to Abu Dhabi for their first trilateral talks of the war

Ukraine, Russia and the US are set to hold three-way talks in Abu Dhabi on Friday, marking the first time that the three countries have sat down together since Russia invaded in 2022. The meeting was confirmed in the early hours of Friday morning after talks at the Kremlin between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the US envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. Kremlin diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters those talks were “useful in every respect”, adding that it was “agreed that the first meeting of a trilateral working group on security issues will take place today in Abu Dhabi”. The full details of the talks in the United Arab Emirates were not released at time of writing, and it was not clear whether Russian and Ukrainian officials would meet face to face. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the talks would last two days. Witkoff, Kushner and the US team are scheduled to meet a Russian delegation, headed by Gen Igor Kostyukov, director of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, in Abu Dhabi on Friday. The Trump administration has been pushing for a peace settlement, with its envoys shuttling between Kyiv and Moscow in a flurry of negotiations that some worry could force Ukraine into an unfavourable deal. The US president said on Wednesday that Putin and Zelenskyy would be “stupid” if they failed to come together and get a deal done. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Witkoff said one major issue remained to be resolved in the negotiations, without saying what it was. Zelenskyy said the future status of land currently occupied by Russia in the east of the country was unresolved but peace proposals were “nearly ready”. Both sides have previously highlighted the issue of territory as crucial. In particular, Putin has demanded that Ukraine surrender the 20% it still holds of the eastern region of Donetsk. Zelenskyy has refused to give up land that Ukraine has successfully defended since 2022 through grinding, costly attritional warfare. Russia also demands that Ukraine renounce its ambition to join Nato, and rejects any presence of Nato troops on Ukrainian soil after a peace deal. “Russians have to be ready for compromises because, you know, everybody has to be ready, not only Ukraine, and this is important for us,” Zelenskyy said from Davos, adding that postwar security guarantees between Washington and Kyiv were ready, should a deal be reached, although they would require each country’s ratification. Zelenskyy was speaking after a closed door meeting with the US president at Davos. Ukraine’s president made a blistering Davos speech accusing European leaders of being in “Greenland mode” as they waited for leadership from Trump on Ukraine and other geopolitical crises rather than taking action themselves. Despite Trump’s limited and scattershot support for Ukraine since taking office one year ago, Zelenskyy focused instead on Europe’s role in the conflict, accusing the continent’s leaders of complacency and inaction. “Just last year, here in Davos, I ended my speech with the words ‘Europe needs to know how to defend itself’,” Zelenskyy said. “A year has passed, and nothing has changed.” Speaking to reporters as he flew back to Washington, Trump said his meeting with Zelenskyy went well, adding that the Ukrainian president told him he wanted to make a deal to end the war. “I had a good meeting, but I’ve had numerous good meetings with President Zelenskyy and it doesn’t seem to happen,” he said. Trump noted that both Putin and Zelenskyy wanted to reach a deal and that “everyone’s making concessions” to try to end the war. He said the sticking points in talks had remained the same over the past six or seven months, noting “boundaries” was a key issue. “The main hold-up is the same things that’s been holding it up for the last year,” he said. Trump also said he and Zelenskyy discussed how Ukrainians were surviving the cold winter without heat. “It’s really tough for the people of Ukraine,” Trump said, noting that it was “amazing” how residents were able to persevere through the winter facing relentless Russian strikes. Ukraine is enduring a bitter winter, with Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure cutting power and heating to much of the capital, Kyiv, as well as other major cities. With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

Ukraine war briefing: Russians must compromise, Zelenskyy says as envoys race to Abu Dhabi

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “Russians have to be ready for compromises” as his envoys rushed to Abu Dhabi for two days of trilateral meetings bringing together the US, Ukraine and Russia. The peace talks simultaneously involving Russia and Ukraine mark one of a handful of times the warring parties have convened in one forum since 2022 and the early days of the war. “I hope [the] Emirates know about it. Sometimes, we have such surprises from the American side,” Zelenskyy said of the talks, suggesting they were called by the US at short notice. “It will be the first trilateral meeting in the United Arab Emirates,” said Ukraine’s president, who spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Everybody has to be ready [for compromise], not only Ukraine, and this is important for us,” Zelenskyy said. Steve Witkoff, one of the US envoys, said the Abu Dhabi proceedings would take the form of “military to military” working groups. He met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday and a Kremlin spokesperson said: “It was agreed that the first meeting of a trilateral working group on security issues will take place today in Abu Dhabi.” More details had not been released at time of writing, and it was not clear whether Russian and Ukrainian officials would meet face-to-face. White House representatives have for months been alternating between talks with the Russians and Ukrainians – usually appearing to bestow their greatest favour on the Russian side and prioritising Moscow’s concerns, to the consternation of Kyiv and its other allies. In 2025, Donald Trump feted Vladimir Putin with a meeting in Alaska that proved unproductive, and also announced direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy that never happened. Trump repeated at Davos on Wednesday his oft-stated belief that Zelenskyy and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, were close to a deal. Zelenskyy said a draft deal was “nearly, nearly ready” and that he and Trump had agreed on the issue of postwar security guarantees. He said the UK and France had already committed to forces on the ground. The French navy has intercepted a Russian tanker, the Grinch, in the Mediterranean suspected of being part of the “shadow fleet” that enables Russia to export oil despite sanctions, writes Jason Burke. “The operation was carried out on the high seas in the Mediterranean, with the support of several of our allies,” said Emmanuel Macron. The UK announced it had provided support. At Davos, in a blistering speech criticising European allies, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said they should be playing a more muscular role in targeting the “shadow fleet” and complained that it remained too easy for Russia to bypass sanctions, and to continue mass-producing missiles and other ordnance. Russian forces launched four strikes on the town of Komyshuvakha, killing one person and injuring 10, the governor of the Zaporizhzhia region said. Several homes were damaged in the attack on the town, which is east of the region’s main city, also called Zaporizhzhia. In the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s home town in the Dnipropetrovsk region, a drone and missile attack injured 13 people, including four children, said Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s military administration. The attacks hit apartment buildings, schools and critical infrastructure. “The main thing is everyone is alive,” Vilkul wrote. “Six people are in hospital, including three children.” Ukraine is no longer considered in default after completing an exchange of securities after a missed 2025 payment, S&P Global Ratings said on Thursday. The rating agency cited the completion in late December of an exchange for $2.6bn of Ukraine’s GDP warrants for new and existing bonds. A “small” portion of Ukraine’s commercial debt remains in default, but S&P said Ukraine is engaged in restructuring talks with creditors and that the funds in question represent less than 2.5% of Ukraine’s total outstanding commercial debt. S&P said Ukraine’s overall credit rating – which is deep into the “speculative” category on the firm’s scale – reflects that its financial condition “remains vulnerable and dependent on favourable financial and economic conditions, including the evolution of the war and continued support of its allies”.

Two dead and six missing after landslides hit house and campground in New Zealand

New Zealand is ‘full of grief”, the prime minister has said, after landslides tore through a house and busy campground, leaving two dead and at least six victims still missing. Police said emergency crews were still searching for at least six people, including two teenagers, believed missing beneath the debris of a landslide, which struck a Mount Maunganui campsite on Thursday morning. Police were attempting to contact another three people. Families enjoying the summer school holiday were among the campers. Recreational vehicles and at least one structure were crushed, images showed. During a visit to the region on Friday, prime minister Christopher Luxon said he had met with some of the grieving families, who had told him they were feeling well supported during an “absoultely tragic” time. “New Zealand is full of grief today … and grieves with them,” he said. The Chinese ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong, posted on X that one of the dead from the landslides was a Chinese citizen. “Our hearts are with the impacted families at this difficult moment,” he said. “Deeply appreciate the assistance provided promptly by Mfat and NZ Police when we reached out yesterday.” The first landslide hit a house in the community of Welcome Bay on New Zealand’s North Island at 4.50am, police said. Two people escaped the house, and the bodies of two who were trapped inside were recovered hours later, the emergency management minister, Mark Mitchell, said. Later the same morning, emergency services were called to a second slide at the base of nearby Mount Maunganui, also on the North Island. The rubble hit Beachside Holiday Park in a town named after the extinct volcano. Images showed vehicles, travel trailers and an amenities block crushed by debris. Local mayor Mahe Drysdale told Radio New Zealand that while search-and-rescue teams had continued at the campground through the night, there had been no progress in finding missing people. “That’s really hard, and we’re here with the families and as you can imagine, just that uncertainty of where they are and when we might have a result is pretty hard,” Drysdale said. He said the area remained unstable. Mitchell told Radio New Zealand it was a challenging and difficult environment. He said police were checking if some campers may have left without informing authorities. The landslide happened after heavy rains soaked much of the North Island’s east coast earlier this week and caused widespread damage. NZ Civil Defence warned on Thursday morning that landslides can happen without warning, and advised the public to keep an eye out for rockfalls, or sinking land at the bottom of slopes, as well at stuck doors or windows, or gaps in window frames. “Get out of the path of the landslide quickly. Evacuate if the building you are in is in danger,” the agency posted on Facebook. Roads remained closed in some of the worst-hit areas, making some North Island towns inaccessible by land. The civil defence organisation in Tairawhiti District said in a social media post that people were walking over landslides to collect water and food from welfare hubs and warned against this due to fears of further landslides. Police superintendent Tim Anderson said the number of people missing was in the “single figures”. No survivors or bodies had been recovered by late Thursday from the Mount Maunganui rubble, where dogs were being used to sniff for human victims, Mitchell said. “There was a shower block and a, sort of, combined shower block-kitchen block and there were people using that at the time the slide came through and they are some of the ones that we’re working hard to try and recover now,” Mitchell told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Further north near Warkworth, a man was missing after flood waters swept him from a road Wednesday morning as heavy rain lashed large swathes of the North Island, a police statement said. Luxon urged residents in affected areas to heed local authorities’ safety advice during the extreme conditions. “Extreme weather continues to cause dangerous conditions across the North Island. Right now, the government is doing everything we can to support those impacted,” Luxon posted on social media. Fire and Emergency NZ commander, William Pike, said there were some signs of life immediately after the Mount Maunganui slide. “Members of the public ... tried to get into the rubble and did hear some voices,” Pike told reporters. “Our initial fire crew arrived and … were able to hear the same. Shortly after our initial crew arrived, we withdrew everyone from the site due to possible movement and slip.” Australian tourist Sonny Worrall said he was lazing in a hot pool within the campground when he heard then saw the landslide. “I looked behind me and there’s a huge landslide coming down. And I’m still shaking from it now,” Worrall told New Zealand’s 1News news service. “I turned around and I had to jump out from my seat as fast as I could and just run.” He looked back to see the rubble carrying a travel trailer behind him. “It was like the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Worrall said. With Associated Press and Reuters

EU stands by Denmark and Greenland and wants ‘respectful’ relations with US, says European Council president – as it happened

This also concludes our live coverage of the summit. There will be more national reactions overnight and tomorrow morning – some leaders are hosting their press conferences now – and they tend to be more outspoken. But that’s for tomorrow. For now, good night!

Six injured after knife attack at Kurdish demonstration in Antwerp

Six people have been injured after a knife attack at a demonstration in Belgium on Thursday evening, police said. Two of the victims were in a critical condition in hospital after the incident in the port city of Antwerp near the Operaplein (Opera Square), police spokesperson Wouter Bruyns said. Bruyns said police apprehended the two suspects who, based on initial findings, had mingled with the demonstrators. Four of the people who were stabbed were found in the square, with two others nearby in the vicinity of Rooseveltplaats and Sint-Elisabethstraat, local reports suggested. Police said the incident was being investigated as a case of attempted murder, “not terrorism”, and that officers were looking at CCTV footage to ensure no other suspects had evaded arrest. The demonstration outside the Opera House, attended by about 50 people, was initially peaceful, according to the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. Flags of the Kurdistan Workers’ party and national flags were waved during the protest in support of Kurds in northern Syria, where Kurdish-led forces have been fighting a government advance. However, shortly after the demonstration ended at about 7.20pm local time, the situation escalated. Orhan Kilic, a spokesperson for Navbel, a group representing the Kurdish diaspora in Belgium, said families, women, young people and children attended the protest. He said: “Just as the protest was disbanding, the Kurdish demonstrators were attacked by a group of men. “These men had sneaked into the demonstration and suddenly pulled out knives and began stabbing people indiscriminately. “It is clear that this attack is not an isolated instance of senseless violence, but a motivated attack on a community.” Forensic officers were seen at the square, and police have urged people to stay away from the area.

Mark Carney says Canada must ‘be a beacon to a world that’s at sea’

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, said his country must be a “beacon to a world that’s at sea” and that national unity was critical as his government faces a dramatic reshaping of the world political order – and mounting domestic challenges The national address, given at a historic military fortress in Quebec City, was far narrower in scope than the prime minister’s remarks earlier in the week at the World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland. Dubbed the ‘Carney Doctrine’, the Davos speech lamented the disintegration of rules-based order amid a rise of “great powers” that used economic “coercion” as a weapon. But his Thursday speech on the grounds of a famed citadel, built to fend off a potential American invasion, nonetheless laid out a defence of Canadian values and his vision for where the country fit into a rapidly changing world. “Canada cannot solve all the world’s problems, but we can show that another way is possible: that the arc of history isn’t destined to be warped towards authoritarianism and exclusion, it can still bend towards progress and justice,” he said. Carney’s remarks, largely written by the prime minister himself, included a jab at US president Donald Trump, who suggested earlier in the week Canada was insufficiently “grateful” for the state of its economy, which he said was the result of American generosity. “Canada lives because of the United States,” Trump told attenders in Davos. “Remember that, Mark, next time you make your statements.” Carney said the two countries “have built a remarkable partnership” through their integrated economies, security agreements and shared values. But he also added: “Canada doesn’t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian. We are masters of our home. This is our country.” Despite international approval for his blunt assessment of the “rupture” in the geopolitical order, Carney has faced pushback from opposition Conservatives, who say the prime minister’s recent trade missions to China and Qatar have produced little concrete investment and distracted him from domestic challenges. Carney pledged to move “fairly and fast” to speed up major infrastructure projects and to tackle the sustained cost-of-living crisis plaguing the country. But he also faces the prospect of two sovereignty referendums in Alberta and Quebec. “When we are united, unity grows. When we are Canadian – inclusive, fair, ambitious – Canada grows,” he said. The prime minister did acknowledge the country’s history was defined by a move “slowly, imperfectly, not without struggle” towards cooperation and partnership of the disparate groups that called it home. Canada has not always lived up to its stated ideals, he said, including the sustained “dispossession” of Indigenous peoples and the “violation” of treaties – a reality that persists into the present. After giving his speech, Carney met- and hugged – the giant novelty snowman Bonhomme, who serves as the ambassador of the city’s winter carnival. Carney is in Quebec to meet with cabinet and attend briefings before parliament returns on Monday. His governing Liberals are one seat short of a majority.

Relations with US have taken ‘big blow’, says EU foreign policy chief

Transatlantic relations have “taken a big blow over the last week” the EU’s foreign policy chief said, as leaders from the bloc gathered for an emergency summit after weeks of escalating threats from Donald Trump over Greenland that were suddenly rescinded with a vague deal on Arctic security. Summing up the mood, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the EU was living through a lot of unpredictability: “One day, one way; the other day, again, everything could change.” Relations between Europe and the US “have definitely taken a big blow over the last week”, but Europeans were “not willing to junk 80 years of good relations”, she told reporters. Speaking after the meeting, the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that EU unity and engagement with the US in “a firm but non-escalatory manner” had paid off. An emergency EU summit was hastily convened earlier this week after the US president announced he would impose 10% tariffs on eight European nations that resisted a US takeover of Greenland, an autonomous territory that is part of Denmark. Although Trump abandoned his tariff threat on Wednesday, EU officials deemed the summit necessary to discuss the wider transatlantic relationship with a volatile and unpredictable US president. Arriving at the summit, Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, hailed EU unity and “our willingness to stand up for ourselves”. Nato states, she said, backed having a permanent presence in the Arctic region including around Greenland. Stressing repeatedly that Danish sovereignty was not up for discussion, she said the US and Denmark “have to work together respectfully without threatening each other”. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, still wearing the aviator shades that drew global attention in Davos, said Europe needed to “remain extremely vigilant and ready to use the instruments at our disposal should we find ourselves the target of threats again”. The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, welcomed Trump’s change of heart: “I am very grateful that President Trump has distanced himself from his original plans to take over Greenland, and I am also grateful that he has refrained from imposing additional tariffs on 1 February.” Several EU leaders stressed determination to maintain the US as an ally. “I still treat the United States as our closest friend,” the Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nausėda, said, referencing the two US battalions deployed in his country. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, another staunch transatlanticist, said: “Europe should be here absolutely united to protect our relations with our partners on the other side of the Atlantic, even if it is much more difficult than ever before.” But he went on to say that politics needed “trust and respect … not domination and for sure not coercion”. Greenland, which left the EU in 1985, also insisted that its sovereignty be respected. Speaking in Nuuk, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, Greenland’s prime minister, said he did not know what was in the deal but emphasised that the largely self-governing territory wanted a “peaceful dialogue” with the US, and its sovereignty was non-negotiable. If Greenlanders had to choose, he said: “We choose the Kingdom of Denmark, we choose the EU, we choose Nato.” The summit came after a withering takedown of Europe from Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who accused the continent of being slow to act on key decisions in contrast with the US’s bold actions on Iran and Venezuela. Europe, he said, needed a united armed forces to defend the continent. “Right now, Nato exists thanks to the belief that the United States will act … but what if it doesn’t?” Europe had allocated €188.6bn to Ukraine by 31 October 2025 since January 2022, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, but decision making has often been slow, with hesitancy from some countries in releasing some military equipment. Referring to the EU’s financial aid for Ukraine, including a €90bn loan pledged last month, von der Leyen said “actions speak louder than words”. Meanwhile the European parliament signalled on Thursday it was ready to reconsider its decision to freeze ratification of the EU-US trade deal, one of the bloc’s strongest responses to Trump’s tariff threats so far. MEPs had been expected to vote in February to approve 0% tariffs on many US goods, a key part of the trade agreement signed at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort last summer, but pressed pause on the process on Wednesday in response to tariff threats. The European parliament can now go ahead with discussions on the EU-US trade deal, following Trump’s tariff threat reversal, its president, Roberta Metsola, said. Earlier in the day the head of the European parliament’s trade committee, the German Social Democrat lawmaker Bernd Lange, said his committee would revisit the issue next week, while stressing that the EU needed to remain vigilant. “There is no room for false security,” he wrote on X. “The next threat is sure to come. That’s why it is even more important that we set clear boundaries, use all available legal instruments [and] apply them as appropriate to the situation.” In response to Trump’s tariff threats, the EU had been discussing levying duties on €93bn of US goods, as well as deploying its most powerful economic sanctions weapon, the anti-coercion instrument, which would allow the bloc to impose a broad range of economic penalties on US companies. Even the EU’s most transatlantic-minded governments said such a response could be necessary if the tariffs went ahead. European leaders had watched with growing alarm as Trump insisted on a US takeover of Greenland, a move that threatened to split Nato and the wider western alliance. European governments feared failure to resist a US takeover of Greenland would cast legitimacy over a Chinese seizure of Taiwan or a Russian invasion of the Baltic states, smashing the post-1945 rules-based order. While that threat has subsided, for now, European leaders shared their concerns about Trump’s proposed “board of peace”, amid fears he is seeking to create a rival to the UN. The European Council President António Costa, who chaired the meeting, said the EU had “serious doubts” about a number of elements in Trump’s board of peace, including its scope, governance and compatibility with the UN. He said the EU was ready to work with Trump on his peace plan for Gaza, where the board of peace was envisaged as a transitional administration for the strip, an idea endorsed by the UN. Launched in Davos on Thursday, the “board of peace” was initially part of Trump’s peace and reconstruction plan for Gaza, but is morphing into an organisation with a sprawling geopolitical role operating under his direct control. So far, Hungary and Bulgaria are the only EU member states to accept an invitation to join the “board of peace”, while France, Sweden and non-EU Norway and the UK have all declined.