seeking to advance fraught talks on how to end the four-year war. The Russian delegation has already touched down in Abu Dhabi, according to Russian state media, though it was unclear if US and Ukrainian delegates had arrived.

Several rounds of diplomacy between the sides have failed to strike a deal on ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II, which began when Russia invaded in February 2022. A massive Russian drone and missile barrage in the run-up to the talks, pounding Ukraine's energy grid and knocking out power and heating in temperatures far below freezing, threatened to overshadow any chances of progress in the Emirati capital.

"Each such Russian strike confirms that attitudes in Moscow have not changed: they continue to bet on war and the destruction of Ukraine, and they do not take diplomacy seriously," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday. "The work of our negotiating team will be adjusted accordingly," he said, without elaborating. The main sticking point is the long-term fate of territory in eastern Ukraine.  Moscow is demanding that Kyiv pull its troops out of swathes of the Donbas, including heavily fortified cities atop vast natural resources, as a precondition of any deal. It also wants international recognition that land seized in the invasion belongs to Russia. Kyiv has said the conflict should be frozen along the current front line and has rejected a unilateral pull-back of forces. The talks -- set for Wednesday and Thursday -- were postponed from last weekend due to what the Kremlin called scheduling issues between the three sides. (Bssnews)