Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s recent battlefield gains were strengthening Kyiv’s position ahead of peace talks scheduled for Tuesday in Abu Dhabi. “Every task that is fully accomplished, every defensive operation that increases Ukraine’s strength and delivers results, strengthens Ukraine and, above all, strengthens us in negotiations,” he said in his nightly video address on Monday.
The Ukrainian president cited a report from top military commander Mykhailo Drapatyi that showed heavy Russian losses. Data leaked from Russia’s state statistics agency, Rosstat, indicated more than 400,000 Russian combat deaths since the war began nearly five years ago. The figures, obtained by the Belarusian hacker group Cyber Partisans and Ukraine’s Silent Crow collective, include 412,576 death certificates linked explicitly to the war through cause-of-death codes or references to military action.
Zelenskyy also pointed to Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russian targets, including oil industry facilities. A recent drone attack set fire to the KINEF oil refinery near St. Petersburg, one of Russia’s largest, according to Leningrad governor Alexander Drozdenko. Ukrainian forces also damaged a plant near St. Petersburg that produces solid rocket propellant for Iskander-M ballistic missiles, according to Ukraine’s general staff.
The upcoming Abu Dhabi talks are US-led and involve Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. US negotiators believe both Zelenskyy and Russian president Vladimir Putin may consider territorial concessions as part of a compromise. An American official told Reuters that the deal could include Ukraine ending the war, receiving security guarantees, and a roadmap to EU accession, with some adjustments to Ukraine’s borders.
Donald Trump, in a 60 Minutes interview broadcast on Sunday, said Ukraine would have “a little bit different shape” under a potential settlement but did not provide further details. A senior Ukrainian official strongly denied that Kyiv was considering any territorial concessions.
Trump said on Monday Washington saw a “very strong inclination” toward ending the war, with both sides “tired of fighting.” However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a more cautious view. Speaking a day before the talks, Rubio said the process “still has ways to go” and that it has been difficult to get European countries to the negotiating table with Russia. “It’s been difficult to get anything productive out of that,” he said.
European powers including France, Germany, and the European Commission will send officials to Abu Dhabi, but Russia has made clear it does not want European participation in negotiations. Ukrainian delegates will meet separately to brief European allies. Rustem Umerov, head of the Ukrainian delegation, said on Monday: “We are doing everything to ensure that Europe is a participant in the diplomatic process.”
At a G7 meeting in Paris, EU foreign ministers pressed Rubio to ensure Europe is represented in negotiations. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said after talks with Rubio: “Europe belongs at this table. There can be no solution without Europe, only with Europe.” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Trump’s team had placed “collective security” covering Russia, Ukraine, and a wider area at the top of the agenda.
Meanwhile, Russia continued attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. On Monday, Russian forces targeted four electrical substations in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy, and Vinnytsia regions, according to Russia’s defence ministry. The strikes aim to deprive civilians of heating, light, and running water as winter approaches. Zelenskyy said the EU had agreed to activate a special emergency mechanism to speed up funding for power grid repairs.
Russian attacks also hit a warehouse in Odesa containing food supplies for kindergartens and schools, killing three people, according to local officials.
The long-range Ukrainian drone strike on the KINEF refinery near St. Petersburg was one of several recent operations targeting Russian military and industrial sites. These strikes, along with battlefield advances and heavy Russian casualties, form the backdrop to the peace negotiations in Abu Dhabi.
According to The Guardian.
