US and Russia agree to re-establish military dialogue after Ukraine talks
The US and Russia agreed to re-establish high level military-to-military dialogue following a meeting between senior Russian and American military officials in Abu Dhabi, the United States European Command said in a statement.
The agreement was reached following meetings between General Alexus Grynkewich, the Commander of US European Command and Nato Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and senior Russian and Ukrainian military officials, the statement said.
The channel “will provide a consistent military-to-military contact as the parties continue to work towards a lasting peace,” the statement said.
High-level military communication was suspended in 2021, just before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
General Grynkewich was in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, where talks between American, Russian and Ukrainian officials on ending the war in Ukraine entered a second day and as Moscow escalated its attacks on Ukraine’s power grid.
Russia continues to target Ukraine’s electricity network, aiming to deny civilians power and weaken their appetite for the fight, while fighting continues along the roughly 1,000km (600-mile) front line snaking along eastern and southern parts of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that 55,000 Ukrainian troops have died since Russia’s invasion almost four years ago.
“And there is a large number of people whom Ukraine considers missing,” he added in an interview broadcast by French TV channel France 2.
The last time the Ukrainian leader gave a figure for battlefield deaths, in early 2025, he said 46,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed.
The delegations from Moscow and Kyiv were joined in the capital of the United Arab Emirates by Mr Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council chief, who was present at the meeting.
They were also at last month’s talks in the same place as the Trump administration tries to steer the two countries toward a settlement. At the time, Mr Zelensky described the issue of who would control the Donbas industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine as “key”.
Mr Zelensky urged allied countries to press Moscow into ending its all-out invasion, which began almost four years ago on February 24 2022, and said his country needs security guarantees to deter any post-war Russian attacks.
Ukrainians must feel that there is genuine progress towards peace and “not toward a scenario in which the Russians exploit everything to their advantage and continue their strikes”, Mr Zelensky said on social media.
Ukrainian civilians have also reeled from the fighting. Last year, there was a 31% increase in Ukrainian civilian casualties compared with 2024, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said in a report.
Together with Prime Minister of Poland @donaldtusk, we paid tribute to fallen Ukrainian defenders.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 5, 2026
Eternal memory to our bravest people who fought for Ukraine, defended its independence, and gave their lives in this struggle.
Eternal glory to our heroes. We remember each and… pic.twitter.com/Kop4f9mtq7
Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrived in Kyiv on an official visit on Thursday.
Two people were injured in the Ukrainian capital as a result of overnight Russian drone strikes, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. In the wider Kyiv region, a man suffered a shrapnel chest wound, authorities said.
Russia fired 183 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force.
Russian air defences downed 95 Ukrainian drones overnight over several regions, the Azov Sea and Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, Russia’s Defence Ministry said.
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