Further Russia-Ukraine talks scheduled for next week, says Zelenskyy

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The next round of peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Sunday.

Envoys from Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. had been expected to meet Sunday in Abu Dhabi to continue negotiations aimed at ending Moscow’s all-out invasion of its neighbor.

“We have just had a report from our negotiating team. The dates for the next trilateral meetings have been set: Feb. 4 and 5 in Abu Dhabi. Ukraine is ready for substantive talks, and we are interested in an outcome that will bring us closer to a real and dignified end to the war,” Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post.

There was no immediate comment from U.S. or Russian officials.

On Saturday afternoon, top Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said he had held a “constructive meeting with the U.S. peacemaking delegation” in Florida.

Officials have so far revealed few details of the talks in Abu Dhabi, which are 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.

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.

Elsewhere, Russian attack drones struck a maternity hospital in southern Ukraine on Sunday morning, the Ukrainian emergency service reported.

In a Telegram post, it said the strike wounded three women in the hospital in the city of Zaporizhzhia, and also sparked a fire in the gynecology reception area that was later extinguished. Regional administration head Ivan Fedorov later said the number of injured had risen to six.

Days earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump said Putin had agreed to temporarily halt the targeting of the Ukrainian capital and other cities, as the region suffers under freezing temperatures that have brought widespread hardship to Ukrainians.

The Kremlin confirmed Friday it agreed to hold off striking Kyiv until Sunday, but refused to reveal any details, making it difficult for an independent assessment of whether the conciliatory step had indeed taken place.

In the past week, Russia has struck energy assets in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa and in Kharkiv in the northeast. It also hit the Kyiv region on Wednesday, killing two people and injuring four.

Overnight into Sunday, Russia launched 90 attack drones, with 14 striking nine locations, Ukraine’s air force said in a Telegram post. A woman and a man were killed in an overnight drone strike in Dnipro, a city in eastern Ukraine, according to local administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.

Russian shelling also hit central Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine, soon after 7 a.m., seriously wounding a 59-year-old woman, according to a Facebook post by the municipal military administration.

Russia's Defense Ministry on Sunday morning said its forces had used operational-tactical aviation, attack drones, missile forces and artillery to strike transport infrastructure used by Ukrainian forces.

In a separate post Sunday, it said that Russian air defences shot down 21 Ukrainian drones flying over southwestern and western Russia. It did not mention any casualties or damage.

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

Veterans of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade of Ukraine's Armed Forces serve free hot meals in a residential neighborhood for people without power in their homes in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026.(AP Photo/Vladyslav Musiienko)

Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev, left, gestures speaking to U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy Jared Kushner 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 envoy Steve Witkoff, left, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, 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)

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)

CAIRO (AP) — Palestinians in Gaza watched with hope and impatience Sunday as workers laid the groundwork to reopen the territory's Rafah border crossing with Egypt, its lifeline to the world. Israel says the crossing is scheduled to resume Monday as its ceasefire with Hamas moves ahead.

“Opening the crossing is a good step, but they set a limit on the number of people allowed to cross, and this is a problem,” said Ghalia Abu Mustafa, a woman from Khan Younis.

Israel said the crossing had opened in a test, and the Israeli military agency that controls aid to Gaza said residents could begin crossing Monday. But only a small number of people can cross at first.

“We want a large number of people to leave, for it to be open so that sick people can go and return,” said Suhaila Al-Astal, a woman displaced from the city of Rafah who said her sick daughter needed help abroad. ”We want the crossing to be open permanently.”

Israel's announcement came a day after Israeli strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians including several children, according to hospital officials — one of the highest death tolls since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10. Israel had accused Hamas of new truce violations.

Nicolay Mladenov, director-general of U.S. President Donald Trump's new board of peace in Gaza, urged the parties to “exercise restraint" and said his office was working with the new Palestinian committee chosen to oversee Gaza to find ways that prevent future incidents.

The Rafah crossing has been largely shut since Israel seized it in May 2024. About 20,000 Palestinian children and adults needing medical care are hoping to leave war-devastated Gaza via the crossing, and thousands of other Palestinians outside the territory hope to return home.

Few people, and no cargo, will be allowed to cross at first. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will allow 50 patients needing medical evacuation to leave daily. An official involved in the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic talks, said each patient can travel with two relatives, while 50 people who left Gaza during the war can return each day.

Zaher al-Wahidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s documentation department, told The Associated Press the ministry hadn’t been notified about the start of medical evacuations.

Israel has said it and Egypt will vet people for exit and entry through the crossing, which will be supervised by European Union border patrol agents. The number of travelers is expected to increase over time if the system is successful.

Also Sunday, Israel's Diaspora Ministry said it was “moving to terminate” the operations of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza by Feb. 28.

Israel in December suspended the group's operations there because it refused to comply with new registration requirements for organizations to submit lists of local employees. The medical charity said the regulations could endanger Palestinian staff.

Doctors Without Borders had no immediate comment. It has said Israel’s decision will have a catastrophic impact on its work in Gaza, where it provides funding and international staff for six hospitals and runs two field hospitals and eight primary health centers, clinics and medical points. It also runs two of Gaza’s five stabilization centers helping children with severe malnutrition.

Israel has suspended over two dozen humanitarian organizations from operating in Gaza because of failure or refusal to comply with the new requirements.

The Diaspora Ministry, which proposed them, says they are aimed at preventing Hamas and other militant groups from infiltrating aid groups. The organizations call the rules arbitrary and warn that the bans harm a civilian population desperately in need of aid.

Gaza’s health sector has been devastated by two years of Israeli bombardment and restrictions on supplies.

Palestinian security officers on Sunday passed through the Rafah crossing’s Egyptian gate and headed toward the Palestinian gate to join an EU mission that will supervise exit and entry, said an Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. Ambulances also crossed through the Egyptian gate, the official said.

Before the war, Rafah was the main crossing for people moving in and out of Gaza. The territory has four other border crossings with Israel.

Israel called its 2024 seizure of the Rafah crossing part of efforts to combat Hamas arms smuggling. The crossing briefly opened for the evacuation of medical patients during a ceasefire in early 2025. Israel had resisted reopening the Rafah crossing again, but the recovery of the remains of the last hostage in Gaza last week cleared the way to move forward.

Under the ceasefire terms, Israel’s military controls the area between the Rafah crossing and the zone where most Palestinians live.

Fearing that Israel could use the crossing to push Palestinians out of the enclave, Egypt has repeatedly said it must be open for crossing in both directions. Historically, Israel and Egypt have vetted Palestinians applying to cross.

The ceasefire halted more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas that began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 71,795 Palestinians, including 523 since this ceasefire started, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. It maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

The ceasefire’s first phase called for the exchange of all hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel, a surge in humanitarian aid and a partial pullback of Israeli troops.

The second phase is more complicated. It calls for installing a new Palestinian committee to govern Gaza, deploying an international security force, disarming Hamas, and taking steps to begin rebuilding.

Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Ambulances line up to enter the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing on the way to the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)

Ambulances line up to enter the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing on the way to the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)

A truck carrying humanitarian aids enters the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing, heading for inspection by Israeli authorities before entering the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)

A crane enters the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing to the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)

Trucks carrying humanitarian aids line up to enter the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing, heading for inspection by Israeli authorities before entering the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)