DONBAS DISPUTE
The Emirates meeting began as thousands of people in Kyiv were without heating in sub-zero temperatures due to Russian strikes.
The European Union, which has sent hundreds of generators, accused Moscow of “deliberately depriving civilians of heat”.
Further Russian strikes killed one person and injured 22 others in Ukraine’s capital and the northeastern city of Kharkiv overnight, authorities said early on Saturday.
“Kyiv is under a massive enemy attack,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko posted on Telegram, adding that several non-residential buildings had been hit and telling residents to remain in shelters.
While diplomacy to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II has gained pace, Moscow and Kyiv appear deadlocked over the issue of territory.
Hours after Putin met Witkoff – and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – in Moscow, the Kremlin said its maximalist demand that Kyiv withdraw from the eastern Donbas region still stood.
“Russia’s position is well known on the fact that Ukraine, Ukrainian armed forces, have to leave the territory of the Donbas,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“This is a very important condition,” he added.
Kyiv, which still controls around 20 per cent of the eastern region, has rejected such terms.
“GOD WILLING”
Ahead of the talks, Zelenskyy told reporters territory remained a “key issue” – with Moscow having said it is not dropping its demand that Kyiv pull out of its eastern Donbas region.
In a post online, he later added: “It is necessary that not only Ukraine has the desire to end the war and achieve full security, but that a similar desire somehow emerges in Russia as well.”
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are last known to have met face-to-face in Istanbul last summer, in talks that ended only in deals to exchange captured soldiers.
The Abu Dhabi meeting is the first time they have faced each other to talk about the Trump administration’s plan.
Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to get full control of eastern Ukraine by force if talks fail.
After the Russia-US talks in the Kremlin, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov insisted Moscow was “genuinely interested in resolving” the war diplomatically.
But he added: “Until that happens, Russia will continue to achieve its objectives … on the battlefield.”
Trump has in the past pressured Ukraine to agree to terms that Kyiv sees as capitulation.
Trump repeated on Wednesday his belief that Putin and Zelensky were close to a deal.
“I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done. And if they don’t, they’re stupid – that goes for both of them,” he said.