By Steve Holland and Yuliia Dysa
DAVOS, Jan 22 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday after talks with U.S. President Donald Trump in Davos that the terms of security guarantees for Ukraine had been finalised, but that the vital issue of territory in its war with Russia remains unsolved.
In what he said was a positive sign of progress in long-running peace talks to end the four-year conflict, Zelenskiy said negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. would hold trilateral meetings for the first time in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday.
He also said a deal was almost ready on economic recovery after the war with Russia, a key element of Kyiv-backed proposals to push back on an earlier U.S. peace plan seen as heavily favouring Moscow.
BOTH SAY TALKS WERE POSITIVE
Zelenskiy and Trump – who have met half a dozen times since Trump returned to the White House last year and upended U.S. policy on Ukraine – both said Thursday’s talks were positive.
“I think the meeting with President Zelenskiy was good. It’s an ongoing process,” Trump told reporters, saying that U.S. envoys were heading for talks in Moscow on Thursday. Asked what his message was for Putin, Trump replied: “The war has to end.”
Zelenskiy, who did not indicate he discussed territory with Trump on Thursday, had said earlier this week he would only travel to Davos if he could sign agreements with Trump on U.S. security guarantees and post-war reconstruction funding for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy has been saddled with an energy crisis at home from Russian air strikes that have left millions of Ukrainians across swathes of the capital and other regions without power and heating.
Zelenskiy described Russia’s months-long onslaught as an attempt by Putin to freeze Ukrainians to death. Invoking Trump’s operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to face charges before a U.S. court, he wondered aloud why Putin was not yet on trial.
U.S. envoy for Ukraine Steve Witkoff had told an audience at the World Economic Forum earlier on Thursday that good progress was being made in peace talks, after he met with Ukrainian and Russian officials in Davos.
“If both sides want to solve this, we’re going to get it solved,” Witkoff said.
TALKS WITH PUTIN IN MOSCOW
Witkoff was due in Moscow later on Thursday with fellow U.S. envoy Jared Kushner – Trump’s son-in-law – for talks with Putin on the possible plan to end Europe’s deadliest war since World War Two.
After those discussions, negotiators would head directly to Abu Dhabi, Witkoff said on Thursday, “where there will be military-to-military talks and discussion of the prosperity package”.
Russia has been cool on the U.S.-led peace push, demanding that Kyiv give up part of its eastern Donetsk region which Moscow has been unable to conquer despite grinding forward on the battlefield.
Putin said late on Wednesday that they would discuss a settlement on Ukraine and the possibility of using frozen Russian assets for reconstruction of Moscow-occupied land, as well as Trump’s proposal for a Board of Peace, tasked with promoting peace around the world.
Critics of the proposal have said it would rival or undermine the United Nations.
The Kremlin said Putin’s meeting with Witkoff and Kushner will take place after 7 p.m. Moscow time (1600 GMT).
Ukraine’s international bonds rallied more than 2 cents on Thursday as the bout of high-level diplomatic meetings lifted hopes in financial markets that progress could be made towards ending the war.
RUSSIA KEEPS UP ATTACK ON UKRAINE
Russian airstrikes hit several parts of Ukraine on Thursday. In the southern region of Odesa, a 17-year-old man was killed when a drone struck an apartment building, the regional governor said.
Eleven people were also wounded in the central city of Kryvyi Rih when a ballistic missile slammed into a residential building, officials said.
In the capital Kyiv, nearly 3,000 high-rises across the city remained without heating on Thursday after Russia’s latest attack earlier this week.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Additional reporting by Ahmed Jadallah; Writing by Dan Peleschuk and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Ros Russell and Andrew Heavens)
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