On eve of day two of talks in UAE capital, Russian attacks cut off about 1.2 million from power in sub-zero temperatures.
Ukraine and Russia ended a second day of United States-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi without an agreement, but with the warring sides saying they were open to further dialogue, as Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure continued.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X on Saturday that bilateral discussions focused on the “parameters for ending the war, as well as the security conditions required to achieve this”, and that further talks could take place as early as next week.
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The talks were attended by Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov and military intelligence head Kyrylo Budanov, and Russian military intelligence and army representatives, according to Zelenskyy. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were also present.
A UAE government statement said talks were “constructive and positive”, tackling “outstanding elements” of Washington’s peace framework, with “direct engagement” between Ukraine and Russia, a rare event in the almost four-year-old war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The initial US draft drew heavy criticism in Kyiv and Western Europe for hewing too closely to Moscow’s maximalist demands and territorial ambitions, while Russia rejected revised versions over proposals for stationing European peacekeepers in Ukraine.
Before the discussions, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russia had not dropped its insistence on Ukraine withdrawing from its eastern area of Donbas, the industrial heartland consisting of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
While Russia controls all of Luhansk, Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to surrender the remaining 20 percent it still holds in Donetsk.
Reporting from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine said: “We … know that they were meant to be discussing what to do about the contested areas in Donbas and also about the possibility of a ceasefire on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.”
‘Cynical’ attack during talks
On the eve of the second day of talks, Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, cutting off about 1.2 million people from electricity in sub-zero temperatures, according to Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba.
Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said drone attacks on Kyiv killed one person and wounded four others.
Kharkiv regional head Oleh Syniehubov said that drone attacks on Ukraine’s second-largest city wounded 27 people.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, who was not at the talks, accused Putin of acting “cynically”. “His missiles hit not only our people, but also the negotiation table,” he said.
“This barbaric attack once again proves that Putin’s place is not at [US President Donald Trump’s] Board of Peace, but in the dock of the special tribunal,” Sybiha wrote on X.
It emerged on Monday that Trump’s administration had invited Putin to join the board, purportedly aimed at resolving global conflicts, as well as overseeing governance and reconstruction in Gaza.
Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian opposition member of parliament in Kyiv, said on X that the attacks during talks were “not a coincidence”.
“This has been Putin’s strategy many times in the past. This is why a ceasefire was such a crucial prerequisite to any real talks,” she said.
Reporting on the talks, Zelenskyy said on X that he valued “the understanding of the need for American monitoring and oversight of the process of ending the war and ensuring genuine security”.
On December 16, Sudanese political parties, armed movements, civil society organisations, and prominent political figures signed a nine-point political roadmap in Nairobi, presenting it as a civilian-led initiative aimed at ending Sudan’s war and restoring a democratic transition.
Framed as an antiwar, pro-peace platform, it seeks to position civilians as a “third pole” against the two military actors in Sudan’s conflict: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Its authors say it represents an attempt to reclaim political agency for civilians after months of marginalisation by armed actors and foreign mediators, even though the declaration does not outline any concrete steps towards military reform.
The roadmap reignited longstanding debates within Sudanese political and civic circles about representation, legitimacy, and the persistent dominance of elite-driven civilian politics.
The roadmap
The Nairobi declaration emerged after a statement released by the Quad – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United States – in September.
The Quad statement called for an immediate three-month truce to lead to a permanent ceasefire, humanitarian access to help civilians, and the creation of a political process for a civilian transition.
It also emphasised excluding remnants of former President Omar al-Bashir’s regime and reforming Sudan’s security forces under civilian oversight, all points that the Nairobi declaration echoed.
The Nairobi signatories included the National Umma Party, the Sudanese Congress Party, civil society organisations – including the Darfur Lawyers Association and the Coordination of Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees – and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW) led by Abdelwahid al-Nur.
Former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who led Sudan’s transitional civilian government from al-Bashir’s overthrow in 2019 until the October 2021 military coup by the SAF and the RSF working in concert, also signed the declaration.
It was likewise endorsed by al-Nur, longtime leader of the SLM-AW armed group that controls Jebel Marra in Darfur and has historically rejected what he describes as “elite-driven” political settlements.
Falling short
Sudanese researcher Hamid Khalafallah told Al Jazeera that despite the intent to present a civilian leadership, the declaration falls short of reflecting Sudan’s broader civic movement.
The Nairobi coalition, he argued, mirrors earlier civilian formations that failed to connect with Sudanese citizens, particularly those most affected by the war.
“It’s in many ways a reproduction of former groups that have … struggled to represent the Sudanese people,” he said. “It’s still very much an elite group that does politics in the same way they always have.”
Although resistance committees – neighbourhood groups that emerged from Sudan’s protest movement and helped topple al-Bashir in 2019 – were referenced in the declaration, no committees formally endorsed or signed it.
Former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, left, and Abdelwahid al-Nur met in 2019 in Khartoum [File: Embassy of France in Sudan/Facebook]
Drafts were reportedly shared with some grassroots groups, but the process advanced without waiting for collective deliberation – reinforcing concerns that civilians on the ground remain politically instrumentalised rather than empowered.
While al-Nur’s participation was hailed by some as a breakthrough, Khalafallah questioned the underlying motivation, arguing that his inclusion was intended to counterbalance rival military-aligned forces rather than transform civilian politics.
Before the Nairobi declaration, there were three main civilian coalitions in Sudan, each aligned with a warring party or accused of such an alliance.
Tasis is the coalition of political parties and armed movements that was founded in February 2025, before forming the RSF’s parallel government in July 2025, while the Democratic Bloc is a grouping of parties and armed groups aligned with the SAF.
Finally comes Hamdok’s Sumoud, comprising political parties and civil society organisations and accused by SAF of supporting the RSF.
Europe’s one-track civilian strategy
European officials have distanced themselves from the Nairobi initiative.
A senior European Union diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera that Brussels does not see the Nairobi roadmap as the foundation for a unified civilian process.
“We would like to see only one civilian process, that’s why we are helping the African Union [AU],” the source said. “Everything else is a distraction, like this Nairobi one.”
According to the EU official, the priority is not multiplying civilian platforms but consolidating them under a single credible framework, led by the AU and broadly accepted by Sudanese society.
“Our aim is to create a credible third pole – versus RSF and SAF,” the source said. “An inclusive one, supported by most Sudanese citizens.”
The EU plans to build a broad coalition that can take the lead after the Quad’s humanitarian truce and ceasefire proposals are accepted by the SAF and the RSF, including reforms placing security forces under civilian-led oversight.
The EU’s language reflects growing frustration among international actors with Sudan’s fragmented civilian landscape, while insisting that abandoning it would legitimise military rule by default.
“Of course, we are not naive that civilians will take over tomorrow,” the source said. “But we have to stand for our values.”
The EU official was blunt in assessing the conduct of Sudan’s warring parties, rejecting narratives that frame either side as a governing authority.
“I would not call what RSF does in Darfur ‘governing’, SAF is a bit better – but not much,” the source said.
“Look at the oil deal they did,” the official added. “Money is important; people are not.”
They referred to the latest agreement between the SAF and the RSF – under South Sudanese mediation – that both would withdraw from the Heglig oil facility, with South Sudanese troops deployed to secure the refinery following SAF’s pullout and the RSF’s capture of the site.
Warring parties as spoilers?
US-Africa policy expert Cameron Hudson told Al Jazeera that the Nairobi declaration appears to mimic the Quad’s recent statement, effectively presenting to the international community a roadmap that aligns with pre-existing objectives to gain Quad support.
“My sense is that the Nairobi declaration reverse engineers what the Quad has said,” Hudson said, suggesting that the initiative is designed more to attract international endorsement than to build genuine domestic consensus.
Hudson warned that this approach mishandles the sequencing of Sudan’s political transition, “prematurely” linking ceasefire efforts with reforms of the army or other political changes, arguing that these should remain on separate tracks until violence subsides.
“If what the Quad wants is an unconditional ceasefire, then it needs to pursue that, not create opportunities to trade a ceasefire for political assurances during a transition,” he said.
“For that reason, it is premature to be talking about reforming the army or other political reforms. These should remain in separate tracks for now.”
The tension is stark. The Quad and the European Union increasingly state that neither the SAF nor the RSF should have a political future and that remnants of the Bashir regime must be excluded entirely.
Yet both armed forces remain indispensable to any cessation of hostilities, creating an unresolved contradiction at the heart of international strategy.
US and Ukrainian envoys say “productive and constructive” talks have taken place in Miami, but there still appears to be no major breakthrough in efforts to end Ukraine’s war with Russia.
Donald Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, issued a joint statement with the top Ukrainian negotiator, Rustem Umerov, after three days of meetings with European allies.
The pair said the meeting focused on aligning positions on a 20-point plan, a “multilateral security guarantee framework”, a “US Security guarantee framework for Ukraine” and an “economic & prosperity plan”.
Separate talks have been taking place in Miami between the US and the Russian envoy, Kirill Dmitriev.
“Our shared priority is to stop the killing, ensure guaranteed security, and create conditions for Ukraine’s recovery, stability, and long-term prosperity,” Witkoff and Umerov said in a statement.
The meetings are the latest step in weeks of diplomatic activity, sparked by the leaking of a 28-point US peace plan which shocked Ukraine and its European allies for appearing to favour Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago.
Witkoff said representatives from Russia had met himself and other US officials in southern Florida, including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Witkoff said the meetings with Russian envoy Dmitriev were also “productive and constructive” and that “Russia remains fully committed to achieving peace in Ukraine”.
Trump has been pushing Ukraine and Russia to come to an agreement on ending the war, but so far the two countries have been unable to agree on major issues, including Moscow’s demand to keep land it has already seized.
US intelligence reports continue to warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to capture all of Ukraine and reclaim parts of Europe that belonged to the former Soviet empire, six sources familiar with US intelligence told the Reuters news agency.
