Ukraine updates: POW swap deal reached at Abu Dhabi talks

More than 1,100 apartment blocks in the Ukrainian capital cannot be heated for the remainder of the winter, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Thursday.

Authorities in Kyiv, home to 3 million people, issued a list of buildings that will be cut off from heat supplies. They are all in the Darnytsia and Dniprovskyi districts on the eastern bank of the Dnieper River that flows through the city.

Repairs on the heating plant that services the districts, which was severely damaged in Russian airstrikes on Tuesday, will take at least two months, Klitschko said.

Kyiv residents have been without electricity, heating and water since early January, when Russia launched devastating airstrikes.

Temperatures are expected to drop to -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit)

Ukraine has accused Russia of attempting a "winter genocide" by targeting civilian energy infrastructure.

The second day of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi between Ukrainian and Russian negotiators to end the war in Ukraine concluded on Thursday.

The two sides agreed to exchange 314 prisoners (see entry below), as well as to resume talks "in the coming weeks," Kyiv's lead negotiator Rustem Umerov said.

Umerov said the delegations thanked the United Arab Emirates for hosting and US President Donald Trump for "his leadership in promoting efforts to end the war."

Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, said the talks had been "constructive and focused on how to create the conditions for a durable peace."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the next round of talks would likely take place in the United States.

The US and Russiawill reestablish military-to-military dialogue on a high level, the Pentagon said.

This comes hours after the expiration of a treaty that limited the two countries' nuclear weapons, and on the same day as the US-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine on ending the war took place in Abu Dhabi.

"Maintaining dialogue between militaries is an important factor in global stability and peace," the US military's European Command said in a statement, adding that this can only be achieved through strength.

The dialogue between the two armies was suspended in 2021.

The talks between Russia and Ukraine over ending the four-year war between the countries have now concluded, a Ukrainian spokesperson said.

Diana Davitian, spokeswoman for Ukraine's top negotiator Rustem Umerov, told journalists that the US-brokered negotiations in Abu Dhabi are done for the day, without elaborating more on their outcome or giving any other details. 

Russia and Ukraine have agreed on exchanging 314 prisoners, US special envoy Steve Witkoff said.

"This outcome was achieved from peace talks that have been detailed and productive," Witkoff posted on his X account, adding that significant work is still being done to end the war between the two countries, the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the end of World War II.

"Steps like this demonstrate that sustained diplomatic engagement is delivering tangible results and advancing efforts to end the war in Ukraine," Witkoff wrote.

This comes as the US-brokered talks between Moscow and Kyiv continue in Abu Dhabi, while Russian strikes on Ukraine continue to take place.

Internet terminals of Elon Musk's Starlink system used by the Russian army in Ukraine have been deactivated, Kyiv's defense minister said.

Minister ⁠Mykhailo Fedorov took to his Telegram channel to say Ukraine will continue forming a list of verified Starlink terminals that are authorized for operations, with the list's first batch already being operational.

Starlink has been described by analysts as crucial to Russian strikes deep inside Ukrainian territory.

The Ukrainian army said it hit the infrastructure of a Russianballistic missile launch site in January.

According to a military statement, some buildings were damaged, with one hangar being "significantly" hit, and some personnel being evacuated from the Kapustin Yar range.

Ukraine's long-range capabilities were used in the attack, including the locally-made Flamingo missile.

The exact dates of the strikes were not provided.

Key world leaders have publicly called for the US and Russia to extend or preserve the START agreement for the reduction of nuclear weapons.

As the US, Russia and Ukraine negotiate over the end of the war, DW has a look at the history of nuclear deals between the two superpowers, its influence on world politics and the idea of limiting nuclear weapons around the world.
'Doomsday Clock': The US-Russia New START deal is ending

Russia said progress has been made in the negotiations over ending the country's war in Ukraine.

"Things are moving forward in a good, positive direction," President Vladimir Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev told state media, also blaming Europe and the UK for "trying to interfere with this process."

"The more such attempts there are, the more we see that progress is definitely being made," Dmitriev said.

According to Dmitriev, work is also being made to restore relations with the US.

A Russian drone attack on Kyiv resulted in two people being injured, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

In a post on his Telegram channel, Klitschko added that several neighborhoods in Ukraine's capital were targeted, also describing damage being caused to residential buildings and a fire being caused on the roof of an office complex. 

According to the Kyiv mayor, debris from the attack fell close to a shopping center and the windows were shattered in a nearby kindergarten.

Russia launched 183 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine last night, Ukraine's army said, with 156 of the drones being intercepted. 

Ukraine, Russia, and the United States are set to begin the second day of talks in Abu Dhabi, aiming to end Moscow's full-scale invasion, which has lasted nearly four years.

The first day of trilateral talks in the Emirati capital concluded on Wednesday with Kyiv describing the negotiations as "substantive and productive," though there was no apparent breakthrough.

The main stumbling block in the negotiations is the fate of the territory in eastern Ukraine. Moscow is demanding that Kyiv withdraw its troops from large areas of the Donbas region, including heavily fortified cities located atop vast natural resources, as a precondition for any agreement.

Kyiv has said the conflict should be frozen along the current front line and has rejected any pullback of its forces.

Meanwhile, Russia continued strikes on Ukraine's power infrastructure, leaving many people, including residents of the capital city of Kyiv, without power and shivering through temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days.

Thank you for joining us as we look at the latest developments in Russia's war in Ukraine.

Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia, and the United States are due to continue their talks in Abu Dhabi as Russia continues drone and missile attacks on Ukraine's energy grid.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the talks needed to yield real peace and not provide Russia with a chance to continue the war.

Emphasizing the human cost of the war, he also announced that 55,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed — a rare disclosure of battlefield losses by either side.

Stay tuned for the updates.