Talks with US and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi were constructive but major challenges remain, Kremlin says

Negotiations aimed at ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are yielding apparent signs of progress, but major challenges remain on the path to a final settlement, a senior Kremlin official said Monday.

Talks between envoys from Ukraine, Russia and the United States in recent days in Abu Dhabi were constructive and another round is planned for next week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

He reported no major breakthrough so far, however, and added: “The very fact that these contacts have begun in a constructive way can be assessed positively, but there is still serious work ahead.”

Officials revealed few details of the talks held on Friday and Saturday, which were part of a yearlong effort by the Trump administration to steer the sides toward a peace deal and end almost four years of all-out war.

While Ukrainian and Russian officials have agreed in principle with Washington’s calls for a compromise, Moscow and Kyiv differ deeply over what an agreement should look like.

Meanwhile, the grinding war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line snaking through eastern and southern Ukraine has dragged on, and Ukrainian civilians are enduring another winter of hardship after Russian bombardment of cities in the rear.

U.S. President Donald Trump has set out deadlines for an agreement and threatened additional sanctions on Moscow, but Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently hasn’t budged from his public demands.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also described the Abu Dhabi talks as constructive, although he noted that “addressed complex political issues ... remain unresolved.”

A new round of trilateral meetings is expected later this week, Zelenskyy said, without giving a date.

Negotiators will return to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday for more talks, according to a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The weekend talks covered a broad range of military and economic matters and included the possibility of a ceasefire before a comprehensive deal, the official said.

Zelenskyy said Sunday that a document setting out U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine in a postwar scenario is “100% ready,” although it still needs to be formally signed.

Kyiv has insisted on postwar American security commitments as part of any broader peace agreement with Moscow after Russia’s 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea and support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, followed by its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Zelenskyy has acknowledged that there are fundamental differences between Ukrainian and Russian positions, though he said last week that peace proposals are “nearly ready.”

A central issue is whether Russia should keep or withdraw from areas of Ukraine its forces have occupied, especially Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland called the Donbas, and whether it should get land there that it hasn’t yet captured.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Monday chided Moscow for its “stubborn insistence on the decisive territorial issue.”

He said during a visit to Latvia that “if there is no agility here, I am afraid that the negotiations may take a long time or will not be successful now.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday that air defenses downed 40 Ukrainian drones late Sunday and early Monday, including 34 over the Krasnodar region and four over the Sea of Azov.

Krasnodar officials said drone fragments fell on two industrial plants in the city of Slavyansk, sparking fires that were extinguished. One person was injured, they said.

Ukraine’s general staff said an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region was targeted by Ukrainian forces. The facility supplied the Russian military, it added.

Russian forces launched 138 drones at Ukraine overnight, 110 of which were shot down or suppressed, Ukraine’s air force said, and 21 of them hit targets in 11 locations.

Associated Press writers Kamila Hrabchuk and Susie Blann in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, left, U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, second left, Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev, second right, and Trump's envoy Jared Kushner talk to each other prior to their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin, in Moscow, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

U.S. President Donald Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff, right, and Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev arrive to attend the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin, in Moscow, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade press service, servicemen fire a 2S1 Gvozdika self propelled howitzer towards Russian positions near Chasiv Yar town, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a joint press conference with Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda and Polish President Karol Nawrocki, at the Presidential palace in Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade press service, servicemen fire a 2S1 Gvozdika self propelled howitzer towards Russian positions near Chasiv Yar town, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

The U.S. workweek opened with yet more snow dumping on the Northeast under the tail end of a colossal winter storm that brought ice and power outages, impassable roads, canceled flights and frigid cold to much of the southern and eastern United States. At least 13 weather-related deaths have been reported.

Deep snow — over a foot (30 centimeters) extending in a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) swath from Arkansas to New England — halted traffic, canceled flights and triggered wide school cancellations Monday. Up to two feet (60 centimeters) were forecast in some of the harder-hit places.

There were more than 800,000 power outages in the nation on Monday morning, most of them in the South, according to poweroutage.com. The region got its share of sleet and freezing rain during the storm. There also were more than 4,400 flight delays and cancellations nationwide, according to flight tracker flightaware.com.

More light to moderate snow was forecast in New England through Monday evening.

In Falmouth, Massachusetts, about an hour's drive south of Boston, snow came down in sheets and closed down the town.

Nell Fields said she had to shovel just to be able to let her dog outside Sunday. Seven inches (18 centimeters) had fallen, with up to that much more still on the way.

“I feel that the universe just put a big, huge pause on us with all the snow,” Fields said.

On Manhattan’s Upper East Side, January Cotrel enjoyed the fresh snow on a block that always closes during snowstorms for residents to sled, throw snowballs and make snowmen.

“I pray for two feet every time we get a snowstorm. I want as much as we can get,” she said. “Let the city just shut down for a day and it’s beautiful, and then we can get back to life.”

Meanwhile, bitter cold followed in the storm's wake. It got down to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 Celsius) in parts of Minnesota on Sunday. Many communities across the Midwest, South, and Northeast awakened Monday to subzero weather. The entire Lower 48 states were forecast to have their coldest average low temperature of minus 9.8 F (minus 12.3 C) — since January 2014.

Record warmth in Florida was the only thing keeping that average from going even colder, said former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue, who calculates national averages based on National Weather Service data.

From Montana to the Florida Panhandle, the weather service posted cold weather advisories and extreme cold warnings as temperatures in many places dipped to zero (minus-18 degrees Celsius) and even colder. Wind made conditions even chillier and the overnight cold refreezed roads early Monday in a cruel reprise of the weekend's lousy travel weather.

Even with precipitation ending in Mississippi, “that doesn't mean the danger is behind us," Gov. Tate Reeves said in a news conference Sunday.

Freezing rain that slickened roads and brought trees and branches down on roads and power lines were the main peril in the South over the weekend. In Corinth, Mississippi, heavy machinery manufacturer Caterpillar told employees at its remanufacturing site to stay home Monday and Tuesday.

It already was Mississippi’s worst ice storm since 1994 with its biggest-ever deployment of ice-melting chemicals — 200,000 gallons (750,000 liters) — plus salt and sand to treat icy roads, Reeves said. He urged people not to drive anywhere unless absolutely necessary. “Do please reach out to friends and family,” Reeves added.

At one point Sunday morning, about 213 million people were under some sort of winter weather warning, authorities said.

Some 12,000 flights also were canceled Sunday and nearly 20,000 were delayed.

In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at least five people who died were found outside as temperatures plunged Saturday, though the cause of their deaths remained under investigation. Two men died of hypothermia related to the storm in Caddo Parish in Louisiana, according to the state health department.

In Massachusetts, police said a snowplow backed into a couple walking in a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority parking lot in Norwood on Sunday. A 51-year-old woman was killed and her 47-year-old husband was hospitalized.

Two teenagers died in sledding accidents, a 17-year-old boy in Arkansas, and a 16-year-old girl in Texas, authorities said.

Three weather-related deaths were announced in Tennessee, authorities said. Further details were not immediately available.

Brumback reported from Atlanta. Walker reported from New York. Kristin Hall and Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, Philip Marcelo in New York, Ed White in Detroit, Jeff Martin in Kennesaw, Georgia, Mead Gruver in Fort Collins, Colorado, Jessica Hill in Las Vegas and Seth Borenstein in Houston contributed reporting.

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A plow clears snow in front of the U.S. Capitol, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Sadie Eidson, left, laughs while playing in the snow in Central Park during a winter storm, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Snow covers houses in Rutherford, N.J., on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

A pedestrian crosses the street near Radio City Music Hall during a winter storm, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

People walk across the Brooklyn Bridge during a winter storm, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Sydney Schaefer)

A motorist passes an ice covered tree limb blocking a lane along West End Ave. during a winter storm Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

People walk through downtown Toronto as a winter storm moves through the region, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Cole Burston/The Canadian Press via AP)