In this handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service on 22 January 2026, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and US President Donald Trump (R) shake hands during their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos.
Handout/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/AFP
- Zelensky said security guarantees with the US are finalised, but Ukraine’s territorial issue with Russia remains unresolved.
- Russia, Ukraine and the US will hold the first-ever trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi this weekend.
- Trump and Zelensky described their Davos meeting as positive, as US envoys head to Moscow for talks with Putin.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday after talks with US President Donald Trump in Davos that the terms of security guarantees for Ukraine had been finalised, but that the vital issue of territory in its war with Russia remains unsolved.
In what he said was a positive sign of progress in long-running peace talks to end the four-year conflict, Zelensky said negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the US would hold trilateral meetings for the first time in Abu Dhabi on Friday and Saturday.
He also said a deal was almost ready on economic recovery after the war with Russia, a key element of Kyiv-backed proposals to push back on an earlier US peace plan seen as heavily favouring Moscow.
Both say talks were positive
Zelensky and Trump – who have met half a dozen times since Trump returned to the White House last year and upended US policy on Ukraine – both said Thursday’s talks were positive.
“I think the meeting with President Zelensky was good. It’s an ongoing process,” Trump told reporters, saying that US envoys were heading for talks in Moscow on Thursday. Asked what his message was for Putin, Trump replied: “The war has to end.”
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Zelensky, who did not indicate he discussed territory with Trump on Thursday, had said earlier this week he would only travel to Davos if he could sign agreements with Trump on US security guarantees and post-war reconstruction funding for Ukraine.
Zelensky has been saddled with an energy crisis at home from Russian air strikes that have left millions of Ukrainians across swathes of the capital and other regions without power and heating.
Zelensky described Russia’s months-long onslaught as an attempt by Putin to freeze Ukrainians to death. Invoking Trump’s operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro to face charges before a US court, he wondered aloud why Putin was not yet on trial.
US envoy for Ukraine Steve Witkoff had told an audience at the World Economic Forum earlier on Thursday that good progress was being made in peace talks, after he met with Ukrainian and Russian officials in Davos.
“If both sides want to solve this, we’re going to get it solved,” Witkoff said.
Talks with Putin in Moscow
Witkoff was due in Moscow later on Thursday with fellow US envoy Jared Kushner – Trump’s son-in-law – for talks with Putin on the possible plan to end Europe’s deadliest war since World War Two.
After those discussions, negotiators would head directly to Abu Dhabi, Witkoff said on Thursday, “where there will be military-to-military talks and discussion of the prosperity package”.
Russia has been cool on the US-led peace push, demanding that Kyiv give up part of its eastern Donetsk region, which Moscow has been unable to conquer despite grinding forward on the battlefield.
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Putin said late on Wednesday that they would discuss a settlement on Ukraine and the possibility of using frozen Russian assets for the reconstruction of Moscow-occupied land, as well as Trump’s proposal for a Board of Peace, tasked with promoting peace around the world.
Critics of the proposal have said it would rival or undermine the United Nations.
The Kremlin said Putin’s meeting with Witkoff and Kushner will take place after 7 pm Moscow time (1600 GMT).
Ukraine’s international bonds rallied more than 2 cents on Thursday as the bout of high-level diplomatic meetings lifted hopes in financial markets that progress could be made towards ending the war.
Russia keeps up attack on Ukraine
Russian airstrikes hit several parts of Ukraine on Thursday. In the southern region of Odesa, a 17-year-old man was killed when a drone struck an apartment building, the regional governor said.
Eleven people were also wounded in the central city of Kryvyi Rih when a ballistic missile slammed into a residential building, officials said.
In the capital Kyiv, nearly 3 000 high-rises across the city remained without heating on Thursday after Russia’s latest attack earlier this week.
