Zelenskyy says next Russia-Ukraine peace talks set for Wednesday and Thursday

(TNND) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Sunday that the next round of peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations will take place on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

A few hours after making that announcement, a Russian drone strike targeted the city of Dnipro hitting a bus of mineworkers and killing 15 people, Ukrainian emergency services said.

The bus was owned by Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK. The company accused Russia of carrying out “a large-scale terrorist attack on DTEK mines in the Dnipropetrovsk,” region, whose capital is Dnipro.

The strike also comes after U.S. President Donald Trump said the Kremlin agreed to temporarily halt the targeting of Ukrainian capitals and other cities, as the region faces freezing temperatures.

Meanwhile, envoys from Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. were expected to meet on Sunday in Abu Dhabi to continue peace talks. But on Sunday morning, Zelenskyy announced it would be postponed to next week.

We have just had a report from our negotiating team. The dates for the next trilateral meetings have been set: Feb. 4 and 5 in Abu Dhabi. Ukraine is ready for substantive talks, and we are interested in an outcome that will bring us closer to a real and dignified end to the war,” Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post.

U.S. and Russian officials have not commented on the schedule change.

On Saturday afternoon, top Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev said he had a “constructive meeting with the U.S. peacemaking delegation” in Florida.

In the past week, Russia has targeted and struck energy assets in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa and Kharkiv, which is in the northeast. It also hit the Kyiv region on Wednesday.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday morning said forces used operational-tactical aviation, attack drones, missile forces and artillery to strike transport infrastructure used by Ukrainian forces.