Russia and Ukraine hold a second day of US-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv on Thursday held a second day of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi on ending their war amid an escalation in Russia’s winter attacks on Ukraine’s power grid and after a sharp rise last year in Ukrainian civilians killed in the fighting.

“We are working in the same formats as yesterday: trilateral consultations, group work, and further synchronization of positions,” said Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council chief, who was present at the meeting.

The delegations from Moscow and Kyiv were joined in the capital of the United Arab Emirates by U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to Umerov. They were also at last month's talks in the same place as the Trump administration tries to steer the two countries toward a settlement.

General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, was also present at the talks, according to a spokesman for the general who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged allied countries to press Moscow into ending its all-out invasion, which began almost four years ago on Feb. 24 2022, and said his country needs security guarantees to deter any postwar Russian attacks.

Ukrainians must feel that there is genuine progress toward peace and “not toward a scenario in which the Russians exploit everything to their advantage and continue their strikes,” Zelenskyy said on social media late Wednesday.

Fighting has continued in parallel with the talks. Russia has hammered Ukraine’s electricity network, aiming to deny civilians power and weaken their appetite for the fight, while a grinding war of attrition continues along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line snaking along eastern and southern parts of Ukraine.

Last year saw a 31% increase in Ukrainian civilian casualties compared with 2024, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a report published Wednesday.

Almost 15,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and just over 40,000 injured since the start of the war through last December, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

Emma Burrows in London contributed to this report.

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

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, right, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attend a commemorative ceremony at the Memorial Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Workers clean up damage at Darnytsia Thermal Power Plant after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Workers clean up damage at Darnytsia Thermal Power Plant after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Workers clean up damage at Darnytsia Thermal Power Plant after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Workers clean up damage at Darnytsia Thermal Power Plant after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris was out of the hospital Thursday after suffering a nasty crash during big air training for the Winter Olympics, with a team official saying it is too early to know if one of the country's biggest stars will compete at the Games.

Eric Myles, the sports director for Canada's Olympic team, said McMorris was “doing fine” back at the athletes village and that team doctors were assessing him hour by hour. The 32-year-old, three-time bronze medalist had to be taken off the course on a stretcher Wednesday night after apparently hitting his head and neck while landing.

Qualifying for big air was Thursday night, about 24 hours before the opening ceremony. McMorris is also entered in the men's slopestyle contest — the event he finished third in at the last three Games — set for Feb. 16.

“We’re not going to take a chance on the health of an athlete," Myles said in Milan, where the first question of his news conference was for an update on McMorris. "It would be premature to take any decision right now.”

In big air, riders do four, five or more spins after taking off from a ramp that, in Livigno, is more than 50 meters (165 feet) tall and built on scaffolding.

On his landing, McMorris lay motionless for about a minute while the medical team rushed out. He was conscious as he was being placed on the stretcher.

Though others — Max Parrot and Sebastien Toutant — have won Olympic gold medals and McMorris has not, he might be the best-known member on the successful Canadian snowboard team. He has a record 22 X Games medals, 12 of them gold. Eight of those have come in slopestyle and the other four in big air.

This is hardly McMorris' first brush with a bad crash.

He suffered life-threatening injuries after slamming into a tree during a backcountry ride in 2017. He has had a rod placed in his leg, a plate in his arm and another in his jaw as the result of that and numerous other injuries over the years.

Last month, he told The Associated Press that he was in good health heading into the first Olympics in his 30s.

“I've been feeling pretty good, staying strong and putting quite a bit of effort in the gym to build a robust frame,” he said, “because what we do can be a little tricky at times on the body.”

AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Milan contributed to this report.

Canada's Mark McMorris crashes during a snowboard big air training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Canada's Mark McMorris reacts after crashing during a snowboard big air training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Medical personnel stretcher Canada's Mark McMorris off after crashing during a snowboard big air training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

People tend to Canada's Mark McMorris after crashing during a snowboard big air training session at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)