Ukrainian delegation arrives in US for peace talks as Russia hits energy sites
If American officials approve the proposals, the US and Ukraine could sign the documents next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
A Ukrainian delegation has arrived in the United States for talks on a US-led diplomatic push to end the war with Russia.
They arrived as Russian attacks again took aim at Ukraine’s power grid, cutting electricity and heating in freezing temperatures.
Kyrylo Budanov, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, said he arrived in the US to discuss “the details of the peace agreement”.
Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Mr Budanov said he, together with Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Davyd Arakhamia, would meet US envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and US army secretary Dan Driscoll.
Mr Zelensky said on Friday that the delegation would try to finalise with US officials documents for a proposed peace settlement that relate to post-war security guarantees and economic recovery.
If American officials approve the proposals, the US and Ukraine could sign the documents next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Zelensky said at a Kyiv news conference with Czech President Petr Pavel.
Mr Trump plans to be in Davos, according to organisers.
Russia would still need to be consulted on the proposals.
Russia struck energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Kyiv and Odesa regions overnight into Saturday, the Ministry of Energy said.
More than 20 settlements in the Kyiv region were left without power following the attacks, the ministry wrote on its official Telegram channel.
Russia has hammered Ukraine’s power grid, especially in winter, throughout the four-year war. It aims to weaken the Ukrainian will to resist in a strategy that Kyiv officials call “weaponising winter”.
Ukraine’s new energy minister, Denys Shmyhal, said on Friday that Russia had conducted 612 attacks on energy targets over the last year. That barrage has intensified in recent months as night-time temperatures plunge to minus 18C.
Ukraine has introduced emergency measures, including temporarily easing curfew restrictions to allow people to go whenever they need to public heating centres set up by the authorities, Mr Shmyhal said.
He said hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure remain the top priority for electricity and heat supplies.
Officials have instructed state energy companies to urgently purchase imported electricity covering at least 50% of their own consumption, according to Mr Shmyhal.
