It’s honestly kind of hard to even process the timing of all this. Like, just when diplomats are sitting in the UAE for the second day of these so-called “peace talks”, Russia is out there firing missiles into Ukraine’s biggest cities. It’s just so weird, like two completely different scenes going on at the same time, guys in suits shaking hands in Abu Dhabi, and meanwhile Kyiv and Kharkiv are actually shaking from blasts.
According to the latest reports, at least one person was killed in the overnight attacks. It wasn’t a small strike either. The officials are saying Russia launched a massive wave of ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones. The targets are the same as they always seem to be energy grids and regular people’s homes.
In Kharkiv, it sounds particularly bad. A maternity ward got hit, some dorm where displaced people were staying too, and even a hospital. And now Chernihiv is apparently completely out of power. The Foreign Minister, Andriy Sybiha, didn’t hold back on X (Twitter). He pointed out the cynicism of Putin ordering a “brutal massive missile strike” exactly when the delegations are supposed to be finding a way out of this war. As he put it, those missiles didn’t just hit people, they hit the negotiation table.
Peace talks stuck in Abu Dhabi
Meanwhile, the meetings in Abu Dhabi are dragging into a second day. This is the big US-led push, involving Trump’s newly established organization which invited Putin to participate. But it seems like they are hitting a wall. The main stumbling block is still territory. Moscow keeps insisting on claims that Ukraine just flat-out rejects, specifically, Russia wants troops to pull back even from parts of the Donbas that Ukraine still controls.
Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov says they are talking about the “parameters” for ending the war, but it’s hard to see how that works when the other side is bombing maternity wards. Sybiha said it proves Putin belongs in a tribunal dock, not on a peace board. It’s a mess. The air defense teams are doing incredible work intercepting what they can, but with another terrible winter setting in, the gap between the “peace process” and the reality on the ground feels massive.
Though the statements for the mentions are inclined with Ukraine, it do not seems that Russia and it’s planning is even bothered or affected with it.