Key events
How close are the sides to a peace deal on Ukraine? – analysis
Pjotr Sauer
Russian affairs reporter
A viable path to peace remains complicated, with Moscow continuing to press maximalist territorial demands on Ukraine.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said last week that negotiations were hinging on a single, highly contentious issue: land. The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that any peace deal must have Ukraine cede the entire eastern Donbas region, including areas still under Ukrainian control.
Kyiv has rejected those terms, though Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is willing to consider alternative arrangements, including the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from parts of the east and the establishment of a demilitarised zone.
US officials have been pressuring Ukraine to give up Donbas, promising security guarantees only if Kyiv first agrees to territorial concessions.
Even if some compromise were reached on territory, other obstacles would remain. Moscow has said it would not tolerate European troops on Ukrainian soil, which Kyiv sees as essential for security guarantees. The Kremlin has also demanded strict limits on the size of Ukraine’s military, a condition Zelenskyy has repeatedly ruled out.
Despite the wide gap between their positions, both sides have often engaged in a careful dance in front of Donald Trump, seeking to appear open to peace so as not to anger the US president, while placing the blame on the other side.
JD Vance about to land in Italy for 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Games
In other news, Air Force Two carrying the US vice-president JD Vance is currently on approach to Milan’s Malpensa airport.
The vice-president, together with the US state secretary Marco Rubio, is coming to Italy to take part in tomorrow’s opening ceremony of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games.
His presence – and security arrangements – sparked a controversy and protests after it emerged that agents from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or Ice, will be involved in his security detail.
As my colleague Sean Ingle reported, the backlash was so powerful that US Olympic officials also had to change the name of an athlete hospitality space in Milan from “Ice House” to “Winter House.”
It was a move welcomed by the American figure skater Amber Glenn, who told reporters:
“It’s unfortunate that the term ‘ice’ isn’t something we can embrace because of what is happening, and the implications of what some people are doing.”
Corriere della Sera’s Milan edition is reporting that there will be FOURTEEN planes in total involved in the US delegation, with 300 agents assigned to protect Donald Trump’s number two.
55,000 Ukrainians killed in war against Russia, Zelenskyy says
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told French broadcaster France 2 last night that the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed on the battlefield as a result of the country’s war with Russia is estimated at 55,000, with many more missing.
Independent international estimates – such as from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington – talk about 100,000 to 140,000 killed.
Zelenskyy also stressed what is at stake for Ukraine, saying that “if we lose this war, we simply lose our country’s independence,” and warning that Russia’s Putin would not stop at Ukraine and could pose direct threat to more European countries.
“Ukraine’s neighbours understand that they will be the first victims” of the Kremlin’s expansionist policy, he said.
Morning opening: Trilateral talks on Ukraine war in Abu Dhabi get back under way
Jakub Krupa
Ukraine-Russia talks have restarted this morning, after Russian president’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev reported “positive movement forward” last night.
“The warmongers from Europe, from Britain, are constantly trying to interfere with this process, constantly trying to meddle in it. And the more such attempts there are, the more we see that progress is definitely being made,” he claimed.
The talks continue in a trilateral format of consultations, Ukraine’s lead negotiator and former defence minister Rustem Umerov said.
Separately, Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk is in Kyiv today to express his solidarity with the wartorn country amid continuing energy, heat outages. Last week Poland was one of the EU countries which sent heat and power generators to the Ukrainian capital.
His visit comes just days after Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte visited Ukraine.
Separately, EU leaders António Costa and Ursula von der Leyen are expected in Paris today for talks with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, about the upcoming EU summit on competitiveness on 12 February.
Macron, somewhat sidelined by the seemingly growing German-Italian partnership, will want to put on the table his ideas on how to fix the bloc.
Lots for us to cover.
It’s Thursday, 5 February 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
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