KYIV – A team from Ukraine touched down in the United States on Saturday to engage in discussions as part of a U.S.-initiated diplomatic endeavor aimed at resolving the nearly four-year conflict. Meanwhile, Russian strikes have once again targeted Ukraine’s power infrastructure, leaving many without electricity and heat in the bitter cold.
Kyrylo Budanov, the chief of staff for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced his arrival in the U.S. to negotiate specifics of a potential peace deal.
In a Telegram message, Budanov shared that he, along with Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Davyd Arakhamia, is scheduled to meet with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, and U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.
On Friday, Zelenskyy conveyed that the delegation’s goal is to solidify documents with U.S. officials regarding a proposed peace agreement, focusing on security assurances and economic recovery in the aftermath of the war.
Should American authorities endorse these proposals, the U.S. and Ukraine could sign the agreements as soon as next week during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy mentioned during a press briefing with Czech President Petr Pavel in Kyiv.
Event organizers have confirmed that Trump also plans to attend the gathering in Davos.
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 war. It aims to weaken the Ukrainian will to resist in a strategy that Kyiv officials call “weaponizing winter.”
Ukraine’s new energy minister, Denys Shmyhal, said Friday that Russia had conducted 612 attacks on energy targets over last year. That barrage has intensified in recent months as nighttime temperatures plunge to minus 18 degrees Celsius (0 Fahrenheit).
Ukraine has introduced emergency measures, including temporarily easing curfew restrictions to allow people to go whenever they need to public heating centers set up by the authorities, 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 Ukrzaliznytsia, Naftogaz and Ukroboronprom to urgently purchase imported electricity covering at least 50% of their own consumption, according to Shmyhal.
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