Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy fears rising US-Iran tensions will scupper key peace talks in UAE

<p>Apparent pause in Russia-Ukraine hostilities comes amid concern that peace talks set for Sunday in Abu Dhabi will be delayed. What we know on day 1,438</p><p><strong>Rising tensions over possible US strikes on Iran have injected fresh uncertainty into the plans</strong> for senior Ukrainian and Russian officials to meet in Abu Dhabi this weekend for another round of talks. “The date or the location may change,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. “From our point of view, something is happening in the situation between the United States and Iran, and those developments could affect the timing.”</p><p><strong>“It is very important for us that everyone we agreed with be present at the meeting, because everyone is expecting feedback,” Zelenskyy told reporters</strong> in remarks released by his office on Friday. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s top envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who attended the previous round of talks, would not participate in the weekend meeting in Abu Dhabi. In Moscow, two sources told Reuters that Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s special envoy, would travel to Miami on Saturday for meetings with members of Trump’s administration.</p><p><strong>Ahead of the possible talks, there has been a</strong> <strong>notable reduction in attacks by Russia and Ukraine against each other </strong>as Ukraine continues to experience one of its coldest winters in decades, with many people living without electricity and heating. The Ukrainian capital is bracing for an especially cold spell from Sunday, with temperatures forecast to fall as low as -26C. Zelenskyy said he was waiting to see if Russia would observe a proposed pause in strikes on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure, saying on Friday there was no formal ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia, Pjotr Sauer <a href="https://w