Zelenskyy looks for compromises all around to reach peace deal

Olesia Safronova and Milda Seputyte, Bloomberg News on Jan 25, 2026

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said progress had been made during talks aimed at ironing out the possible parameters for ending Russia’s full-scale invasion, although such a deal still requires compromises from all sides.

Zelenskyy spoke in Lithuania after delegations, including military officials, from Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. took part in two days of talks in Abu Dhabi that ended on Saturday. He held a press conference in Vilnius with Gitanas Nauseda and Karol Nawrocki, the presidents of Lithuania and Poland respectively.

U.S. officials called the Abu Dhabi talks constructive, not least because the Ukrainian and Russian teams met face to face rather than through intermediaries. Officials will gather on Feb. 1 to resume discussions.

Zelenskyy said Russia is still seeking to gain more territory in Ukraine’s east as part of any peace deal, including areas that Kremlin forces haven’t captured in fighting dating back to 2014.

“There were many problematic issues. Now there are fewer,” Zelenskyy said in Vilnius. “Our position on the territory is that integrity must be respected — we are fighting for our own.”

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy repeated comments from last week that Ukraine and the U.S. have basically agreed to a post-war security guarantee agreement.

He said that the U.S. was trying to find a middle ground as part of its role as mediator, and saw “first steps to find that compromise” within the trilateral format.

While in Vilnius, Zelenskyy participated in events marking the anniversary of the January Uprising — a 19th century rebellion of nobility on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against Russian rule. He met with Nauseda and Nawrocki in the “Lublin Triangle” format between the three nations.

Poland’s head of state said that Ukraine’s strategic future is as “part of Western civilization,” inside the European Union, as Zelenskyy and Nauseda discussed potential accession to the bloc in 2027 or 2030.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also traveled to Vilnius for talks with Lithuanian counterpart Kęstutis Budrys.

Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and other cities are rushing to restore power after huge Russian air-strikes early Saturday caused widespread outages of heat, water and electricity, even as the talks were underway in the United Arab Emirates.

In the past week alone, Kremlin forces launched more than 1,700 attack drones, over 1,380 guided aerial bombs and 69 missiles over various types at Ukraine, Zelenskiy said on X.

Lithuania’s recent move to provide Ukraine with more than 90 generators is a vital contribution to strengthening energy resilience, Sybiha said.