BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA
Ukraine’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said on Sunday that discussions with senior U.S. officials aimed at ending the nearly four-year war with Russia will continue this week on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, as Kyiv intensifies efforts to secure firm security guarantees and outline a postwar recovery plan.
Umerov said the next round of consultations would follow two days of talks held in Florida, where a Ukrainian delegation met with a U.S. team that included special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump. Writing on Telegram, Umerov said the meetings focused primarily on mechanisms to ensure Ukraine’s long-term security and on frameworks for rebuilding the country after the fighting ends.
While Umerov did not indicate that any concrete agreements were reached during the Florida discussions, he said both sides agreed to press ahead with technical-level work. “We agreed to continue work at the team level during the next phase of consultations in Davos,” he wrote, describing the talks as detailed and substantive.
According to Umerov, negotiators examined practical ways to implement security arrangements and recovery measures, reflecting the latest in a series of meetings designed to work through the details of a broader peace framework. The Ukrainian delegation also briefed U.S. officials on the impact of renewed Russian strikes in recent days, which severely damaged energy infrastructure across the country and left hundreds of apartment buildings without heating or electricity during a period of extreme winter cold.
The Kyiv delegation included several of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s closest advisers, among them the head of the presidential office, Kyrylo Budanov, and Davyd Arakhamia, who leads the president’s parliamentary faction. Ukrainian officials are also seeking greater clarity from Washington on Moscow’s position toward the U.S.-backed diplomatic effort, amid uncertainty over whether the Kremlin is prepared to engage seriously in negotiations.
Washington has been urging Kyiv to agree on a peace framework that could then be presented to Moscow, while Ukraine and its European allies remain wary of any settlement that does not provide robust protections against a renewed Russian assault in the future.
President Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address, said the latest wave of Russian attacks underscored Moscow’s lack of interest in diplomacy. “If the Russians were seriously interested in ending the war, they would have focused on diplomacy,” he said, arguing that continued strikes on civilian infrastructure contradicted any claims of good faith.
As Ukraine grapples with the immediate fallout from the attacks, Zelenskiy said nearly 58,000 repair workers remain deployed to restore heating systems nationwide, as overnight temperatures have dropped to minus 16 degrees Celsius. Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said that in Kyiv alone, around 30 apartment buildings—particularly in districts hit hardest last week—were still without heat.
Ukrainian officials also warned of further risks ahead. Zelenskiy said intelligence services had identified signs that Russia was conducting reconnaissance of critical sites in preparation for additional strikes, including facilities linked to nuclear power generation. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said there was evidence suggesting Moscow was considering attacks on power substations that supply electricity to nuclear plants, raising concerns about potential escalation and safety risks.
Russian officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the allegations or on the latest round of diplomatic efforts.
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