‘Massive’ Russian strikes on Ukraine hit negotiation table as well as people, Kyiv says – Europe live | Europe

Peter Beaumont

In the Benedikt cafe in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, one wall is covered by a giant map with countries and territories cut out of lacquered wooden pieces, with Greenland at its apex.

The waiter has not been following news of the Greenland crisis and Donald Trump’s desire to annex the Danish territory. But the echoes of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin’s imperial land grab of the waiter’s own country are clear to him. “They’re crazy. The pair of them.”

For those paying more attention in Ukraine, amid Russian airstrikes, the freezing cold and power cuts, the correspondences are not only clear, but often alarming – even if for now Trump has switched from sabre rattling to trying to rationalise a vague and incoherent deal he thinks he struck for the territory with Nato.

“There are three basic problems,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, the chair of the Ukrainian parliament’s committee on foreign policy and inter-parliamentary relations and an expert on international law.

“Firstly, it is a distraction from the situation we are in now. And any distraction among our European partners weakens the coalition supporting us. It weakens Nato, and it weakens transatlantic solidarity.”

Then there is the question of how Trump’s demands and actions undermine the post-second world war international rules-based order.

“As an international lawyer, one of the key principles is that territorial integrity is sacrosanct. We support the territorial integrity of Denmark. And what I am afraid of is [that the Greenland issue plays into] Putin’s idea of dividing the world into spheres of influence.”

Ukraine’s foreign minister accused Russian president Vladimir Putin on Saturday of “cynically” ordering a massive missile strike while delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the US were in Abu Dhabi for Washington-brokered peace talks.

“This barbaric attack once again proves that Putin’s place is not at the board of peace, but at the dock of the special tribunal,” foreign minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X.

Russia launched waves of air strikes against Ukraine’s two largest cities Kyiv and Kharkiv early on Saturday, with one person killed and at least 23 injured.

He added: “Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, this was another night of Russian terror.”

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 375 drones and 21 missiles in the strikes, which once again targeted energy infrastructure, knocking out power and heat for large parts of the capital.

Hello and welcome to the Europe live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines.

We start with news that Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least one person and wounded 23 overnight into Saturday, as negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the United States were set to meet in Abu Dhabi for a second day of talks to end Russia’s nearly four-year full-scale invasion.

One person was killed and four wounded in Russian drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, according to Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko.

In Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, drone attacks wounded 19 people, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

The attacks came as envoys were expected to meet in the United Arab Emirates for a second day of talks on Saturday. The talks are the first known instance that officials from the Trump administration have sat down with both countries, AP reports.

The UAE’s foreign ministry said the talks are part of efforts “to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis.” The White House described Friday’s first day as productive.

There has been a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent days, from Switzerland to the Kremlin, even though serious obstacles remain between both sides.

While Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday that a potential peace deal was “nearly ready,” certain sensitive sticking points – most notably those related to territorial issues – remain unresolved.

Just hours before the three-way talks began, Russian president Vladimir Putin discussed a Ukraine settlement with US president Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during marathon overnight talks.

The Kremlin insists that to reach a peace deal, Kyiv must withdraw its troops from the areas in the east that Russia illegally annexed but has not fully captured.

You can read my colleague Peter Beaumont’s report from Kyiv here: