‘Just a show’: Ukrainians believe Russia wants war, not talks
By AFP
January 27, 2026
Stretched Ukrainian forces have struggled to hold the line in the east and south of the country - Copyright AFP Antonio SEMPERE
Jonathan BROWN with Stanislav DOSHCHITSYN
Hours after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators ended their first round of peace talks in the United Arab Emirates last Friday, Russian forces pummelled Ukraine with hundreds of drones and missiles.
The bombardment knocked out lighting and heating to Ukrainians in freezing temperatures, but it also sent a signal, according to Kyiv, of Russia’s true intention: to fight on.
“Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, this was another night of Russian terror,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote, as emergency services surveyed the destruction.
The talks brokered by the United States are the latest diplomatic initiative in the brutal war launched by Russia nearly four years ago — all of which have failed to end the fighting.
Announcing the fresh talks last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a key warning. Putin, he said, “really doesn’t want” peace.
– ‘Endurance of our people’ –
Zelensky has said for months that Russia must be forced into real negotiations through biting sanctions on it and accumulated battlefield losses.
The two sides are in deadlock primarily over the fate of strategic eastern Ukrainian territory. Russia says Ukraine’s forces must withdraw. Kyiv refuses.
Zelensky’s scepticism over whether Russia genuinely wants to end the war through talks is widespread among Ukrainians, who have suffered years of relentless assaults that have displaced million and killed tens of thousands.
“It’s all just a show for the public. Russia will not sign any agreements. We must prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Kyiv resident Petro told AFP.
“These negotiations don’t even give us any hope for the better. Our only hope is in the endurance of our people,” another resident, Iryna Berehova, 48, said.
Previous rounds of talks since Moscow invaded — in Turkey multiple times, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Belarus — have seen no let up in the killing or Russian bombardments.
This time, scepticism in Ukraine extends not only to the Russians, but to the American mediators.
Since returning the White House last year, Donald Trump has on multiple occasions voiced pro-Kremlin talking points and a willingness to give concessions to Putin.
Polling shows Ukrainians have gradually lost faith in the United States as a reliable broker. One survey found 74 percent said Trump was bad for their country.
More than just the format of the negotiations, the two sides remain far apart on what a potential deal would look like.
“There won’t be any quick, concrete or effective results now or in the near future, because the positions are fundamentally different,” Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said on state-run television.
Russia is demanding that Ukrainian forces withdraw from Donbas, an industrial region in the east that has suffered the worst of fighting and was partially controlled by Russian forces before the full-scale invasion.
– ‘Hit a dead end’ –
But this is a politically and militarily fraught prospect for Ukrainians who believe Russia will continue its attacks anyway.
Zelensky is seeking robust security guarantees from allies to deter future attacks from Moscow’s army.
“If the Russians insist on discussing only the Donbas issue and the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donbas, and the Americans agree to that, then — after a while — the talks will hit a dead end,” Fesenko, the analyst, added.
The Kremlin has said the talks were held in a “constructive spirit” but cautioned that there was still “significant work ahead”.
A source in the Ukrainian presidency told AFP that negotiators were still engaging with the talks despite this widespread belief that Moscow wants to keep fighting.
The hope is that Trump will see that Russia is the obstacle to peace, not Ukraine, lose patience with Putin, and then “we will get more weapons”, the source said.
With the next round of talks expected later this week, there are some that still hold out hope.
Ruslan, a 35-year-old Ukrainian soldier in the central Ukrainian city of Pavlograd, is one of them.
“Everyone has been waiting for this,” he told AFP in the mining town that Russian forces are inching towards.
“It’s not realistic to beat the Russians on the front line, so we have to come to some kind of agreement. The military understands this,” he added
Russian strikes in Ukraine kill 12, target passenger train
By AFP
January 27, 2026
Ukrainian energy company DTEK said the attack cause 'enormous' damage on its facilities - Copyright AFP ROBERTO SCHMIDT
Russian forces in Ukraine killed 12 people and struck energy infrastructure and a passenger train overnight on Tuesday, authorities said, days after negotiators from both sides held direct talks aimed at ending nearly four years of war.
In northeastern Kharkiv region, a drone hit a carriage of a train transporting nearly 200 passengers, killing at least five people, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko posted on X.
“There is not and cannot be any military justification for killing civilians in a train carriage,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram.
Prosecutors posted images of the smouldering carriage on social media, which regional emergency services later said had been extinguished.
A barrage of more than 50 Russian drones killed three people and wounded more than 30 in the southern city of Odesa, regional officials said.
The Black Sea city key for Ukrainian exports has been routinely pummelled by Russian forces.
Regional governor Oleg Kiper said a woman, 39 weeks pregnant, and two girls were among the wounded.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw the collapsed facade of a residential building and rescue workers searching the rubble for victims.
Zelensky said the bombardment undermined peace efforts and urged allies to step up pressure on Moscow to end the war.
“Every such Russian strike erodes the diplomacy that is still ongoing and undermines the efforts of partners who are helping to end this war,” he wrote on social media.
Deadly strikes on energy infrastructure that have left many Ukrainians without power in freezing temperatures have continued since Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in the United Arab Emirates last week for US-brokered talks aimed at ending the conflict.
The next round is expected to take place on February 1, according to Zelensky.
– Millions without power –
Ukrainian private energy firm DTEK said Russian forces had inflicted “enormous” damage on one of its facilities in the Odesa region overnight.
Kiper said dozens of residential buildings, a church, kindergarten and schools had been damaged in the attacks.
A married couple aged 45 and 48 were killed in Sloviansk in the eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims to have annexed. Their 20-year-old son survived the attack, local prosecutors said.
In the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, a 58-year-old man was killed in a drone attack. A 72-year-old was killed in her home by Russian shelling in the southern Kherson region.
Russian drone and missile attacks have knocked out power, lighting and heat to millions of Ukrainians across the country.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 165 attack drones overnight, and officials said an infrastructure facility in the western Lviv region was hit.
State gas company Naftogaz said the attack had left one of its facilities on fire in western Ukraine, describing it as the fifth attack of its kind this month.
Russian forces are slowly advancing across the front. The Russian defence ministry announced on Tuesday it had captured two more villages in the Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions.
bur-jbr-fv-blb/tw/gv/ceg/mjw
By AFP
January 27, 2026
Stretched Ukrainian forces have struggled to hold the line in the east and south of the country - Copyright AFP Antonio SEMPERE
Jonathan BROWN with Stanislav DOSHCHITSYN
Hours after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators ended their first round of peace talks in the United Arab Emirates last Friday, Russian forces pummelled Ukraine with hundreds of drones and missiles.
The bombardment knocked out lighting and heating to Ukrainians in freezing temperatures, but it also sent a signal, according to Kyiv, of Russia’s true intention: to fight on.
“Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, this was another night of Russian terror,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote, as emergency services surveyed the destruction.
The talks brokered by the United States are the latest diplomatic initiative in the brutal war launched by Russia nearly four years ago — all of which have failed to end the fighting.
Announcing the fresh talks last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a key warning. Putin, he said, “really doesn’t want” peace.
– ‘Endurance of our people’ –
Zelensky has said for months that Russia must be forced into real negotiations through biting sanctions on it and accumulated battlefield losses.
The two sides are in deadlock primarily over the fate of strategic eastern Ukrainian territory. Russia says Ukraine’s forces must withdraw. Kyiv refuses.
Zelensky’s scepticism over whether Russia genuinely wants to end the war through talks is widespread among Ukrainians, who have suffered years of relentless assaults that have displaced million and killed tens of thousands.
“It’s all just a show for the public. Russia will not sign any agreements. We must prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Kyiv resident Petro told AFP.
“These negotiations don’t even give us any hope for the better. Our only hope is in the endurance of our people,” another resident, Iryna Berehova, 48, said.
Previous rounds of talks since Moscow invaded — in Turkey multiple times, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Belarus — have seen no let up in the killing or Russian bombardments.
This time, scepticism in Ukraine extends not only to the Russians, but to the American mediators.
Since returning the White House last year, Donald Trump has on multiple occasions voiced pro-Kremlin talking points and a willingness to give concessions to Putin.
Polling shows Ukrainians have gradually lost faith in the United States as a reliable broker. One survey found 74 percent said Trump was bad for their country.
More than just the format of the negotiations, the two sides remain far apart on what a potential deal would look like.
“There won’t be any quick, concrete or effective results now or in the near future, because the positions are fundamentally different,” Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said on state-run television.
Russia is demanding that Ukrainian forces withdraw from Donbas, an industrial region in the east that has suffered the worst of fighting and was partially controlled by Russian forces before the full-scale invasion.
– ‘Hit a dead end’ –
But this is a politically and militarily fraught prospect for Ukrainians who believe Russia will continue its attacks anyway.
Zelensky is seeking robust security guarantees from allies to deter future attacks from Moscow’s army.
“If the Russians insist on discussing only the Donbas issue and the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Donbas, and the Americans agree to that, then — after a while — the talks will hit a dead end,” Fesenko, the analyst, added.
The Kremlin has said the talks were held in a “constructive spirit” but cautioned that there was still “significant work ahead”.
A source in the Ukrainian presidency told AFP that negotiators were still engaging with the talks despite this widespread belief that Moscow wants to keep fighting.
The hope is that Trump will see that Russia is the obstacle to peace, not Ukraine, lose patience with Putin, and then “we will get more weapons”, the source said.
With the next round of talks expected later this week, there are some that still hold out hope.
Ruslan, a 35-year-old Ukrainian soldier in the central Ukrainian city of Pavlograd, is one of them.
“Everyone has been waiting for this,” he told AFP in the mining town that Russian forces are inching towards.
“It’s not realistic to beat the Russians on the front line, so we have to come to some kind of agreement. The military understands this,” he added
By AFP
January 27, 2026
Ukrainian energy company DTEK said the attack cause 'enormous' damage on its facilities - Copyright AFP ROBERTO SCHMIDT
Russian forces in Ukraine killed 12 people and struck energy infrastructure and a passenger train overnight on Tuesday, authorities said, days after negotiators from both sides held direct talks aimed at ending nearly four years of war.
In northeastern Kharkiv region, a drone hit a carriage of a train transporting nearly 200 passengers, killing at least five people, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko posted on X.
“There is not and cannot be any military justification for killing civilians in a train carriage,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram.
Prosecutors posted images of the smouldering carriage on social media, which regional emergency services later said had been extinguished.
A barrage of more than 50 Russian drones killed three people and wounded more than 30 in the southern city of Odesa, regional officials said.
The Black Sea city key for Ukrainian exports has been routinely pummelled by Russian forces.
Regional governor Oleg Kiper said a woman, 39 weeks pregnant, and two girls were among the wounded.
An AFP journalist at the scene saw the collapsed facade of a residential building and rescue workers searching the rubble for victims.
Zelensky said the bombardment undermined peace efforts and urged allies to step up pressure on Moscow to end the war.
“Every such Russian strike erodes the diplomacy that is still ongoing and undermines the efforts of partners who are helping to end this war,” he wrote on social media.
Deadly strikes on energy infrastructure that have left many Ukrainians without power in freezing temperatures have continued since Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in the United Arab Emirates last week for US-brokered talks aimed at ending the conflict.
The next round is expected to take place on February 1, according to Zelensky.
– Millions without power –
Ukrainian private energy firm DTEK said Russian forces had inflicted “enormous” damage on one of its facilities in the Odesa region overnight.
Kiper said dozens of residential buildings, a church, kindergarten and schools had been damaged in the attacks.
A married couple aged 45 and 48 were killed in Sloviansk in the eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims to have annexed. Their 20-year-old son survived the attack, local prosecutors said.
In the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, a 58-year-old man was killed in a drone attack. A 72-year-old was killed in her home by Russian shelling in the southern Kherson region.
Russian drone and missile attacks have knocked out power, lighting and heat to millions of Ukrainians across the country.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 165 attack drones overnight, and officials said an infrastructure facility in the western Lviv region was hit.
State gas company Naftogaz said the attack had left one of its facilities on fire in western Ukraine, describing it as the fifth attack of its kind this month.
Russian forces are slowly advancing across the front. The Russian defence ministry announced on Tuesday it had captured two more villages in the Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions.
bur-jbr-fv-blb/tw/gv/ceg/mjw
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