Russia, Ukraine conclude first day of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi

Russia and Ukraine concluded the first day of the second round of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Wednesday. In a routine video address on the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had received a briefing from the Ukrainian delegation, and discussed the interim results of the day's negotiations with the negotiating team.

The negotiations, conducted in a trilateral format involving Ukraine, the United States, and Russia, will continue on Thursday, according to Zelensky.

Ukraine's position on effectively ending the conflict is very clear, the president said, adding that Ukraine's partners should achieve this goal through solid security guarantees and by putting pressure on Russia.

Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council and a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said the negotiations on Wednesday were "substantive and productive." The talks focused on concrete steps and practical solutions, Umerov said in a social media post.

The Ukrainian official stressed that the delegation was working to "achieve a dignified and lasting peace."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference in Moscow on Wednesday that the door to a peaceful settlement of the situation in Ukraine remains open, but Russia will continue the special military operation until "appropriate decisions are taken by Kiev."

He added that Russian forces are striking targets considered to be associated with Ukraine's military-industrial complex.

The spokesman said Russia won't issue any statement about outcomes of the trilateral talks, as the country's position on Ukraine is clear and well understood by both the authorities in Kiev and U.S. negotiators involved in the trilateral contacts.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that great progress has been made on negotiations over the past year, but a breakthrough in the talks may not come for a while as the items that remain are the most difficult ones.

The second round of talks is scheduled to run for two days. The previous meeting of the trilateral working group on security issues took place from Jan. 23 to 24 in Abu Dhabi. It marked the first trilateral engagement since the escalation of the conflict in February 2022, although no concrete agreement or joint statement was announced afterward.

Russia, Ukraine conclude first day of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi

At least one person has died and several others have been hospitalized after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia’s Maluku Strait early on Thursday morning, with the quake also causing varying degrees of damage to multiple buildings in Manado, the capital city of the North Sulawesi province. The quake struck at 06:48 local time Thursday at a magnitude of 7.4 and a depth of 30 kilometers, according to measurements by the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).

There were scenes of panic outside a hospital in Manado when the quake hit, with several seconds of intense shaking causing cracks to appear in the building of the medical facility which belongs to the Siloam private healthcare group.

Patients and medical staff were urgently evacuated to the roadside, with some seen in wheelchairs or still connected to intravenous (IV) drips, while others were even pushed out of the wards on their hospital beds. A car parked downstairs was hit by falling debris, shattering its windows.

"Some people were sleeping at the time, some had just undergone surgery, and others were receiving treatment. The earthquake damaged the hospital's ceiling, and I also saw some cracks in the walls," said Billy Lombok, the family member of a patient.

A tsunami warning was issued but later lifted following the quake as Indonesian authorities observed no significant sea level changes.

Patients rushed out from hospital building as 7.4-magnitude quake hits Indonesia, killing one