Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his negotiators are waiting to hear from the United States on further meetings about ending the war with Russia.
Zelensky's remarks in his evening address on Jan. 31 appeared to suggest that a second round of talks scheduled to start in Abu Dhabi yesterday between U.S., Russian and Ukrainian officials on ending the fighting had been postponed.
"Ukraine is ready to work in all working formats," said Zelensky.
"It is important that there are results and that the meetings take place. We are counting on meetings next week and are preparing for them."
Zelensky was speaking as U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said he had had "productive and constructive" talks with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Florida on Jan. 31.
Teams from Ukraine and Russia met on Jan. 23 and 24 in Abu Dhabi in their first in-person negotiations on a plan being pushed by President Donald Trump to end the war.
They had agreed to resume talks there yesterday.
On Jan. 29, however, Zelensky suggested that the date and venue could change given the current tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The U.S. says both sides are close to a deal, but they have so far been unable to find a compromise on the key issue of territory in a post-war settlement, according to Kiev.
Meanwhile, an overnight Russian strike in the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk killed two people, authorities said yesterday.
A man and a woman in the city of Dnipro "died due to an enemy UAV strike," said Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the regional military administration, in a statement posted on Telegram.
Ganzha said the drone caused a fire, destroyed a house and caused damage to two more residences and a car.
