The U.S., Russia and Ukraine are meeting in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), to discuss one of the major sticking points stopping a deal to end the nearly four-year war: territorial disputes. The talks in Abu Dhabi are the first trilateral talks since 2022.

The trilateral sit-down comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump in Davos and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Witkoff and Kushner traveled to the UAE for the talks after their meeting with Putin in Moscow on Thursday.

ZELENSKYY BLASTS GLOBAL INACTION ON IRAN, CLAIMS EUROPE STUCK IN ‘GREENLAND MODE’

Zelenskyy and Putin are under increasing pressure to reach a peace deal as the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s invasion approaches and President Donald Trump pushes to end the war.

While Russia has demanded Ukraine cede the Donbas, Zelenskyy has stood firm in his opposition to making land concessions, though the discussions in Abu Dhabi suggest that he could be ready to negotiate. Putin is demanding Ukraine surrender the 20% it holds of the Donetsk region of the Donbas, according to Reuters.

UKRAINIAN AMBASSADOR SAYS PEACE TALKS ARE ‘GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION,’ TRILATERAL TALKS PLANNED IN UAE

“The question of Donbas is key. It will be discussed how the three sides… see this in Abu Dhabi today and tomorrow,” Zelenskyy told reporters via WhatsApp, according to Reuters. The outlet added that an aide for Zelenskyy said the talks are expected to continue Saturday.

The envoys are meeting as Ukrainians face below-freezing temperatures after Russian strikes damaged the country’s power supply.

Maxim Timchenko, the head of Ukraine’s top private power producer, told Reuters that the situation was nearing a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

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While speaking with reporters on Air Force One, Trump was asked if the trilateral meeting could lead to one with himself, Putin and Zelenskyy. He would not commit but said that “any time we meet, it’s good.” He also expressed doubts about whether Putin wanted to take over all of Ukraine.

“What’s happened here is there were times when Putin didn’t want to make a deal, times when Zelensky didn’t want to make a deal, and it was opposite times. Now, I think they both want to make a deal. We’ll find out,” Trump said.

The president also acknowledged that the topics of the discussions that were happening had been debated for months.

Europe must electrify “everything” in the coming years, Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said during a Euronews panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, sharing a vision of a continent powered by clean power rather than fossil fuels.

“When we look at energy security in Europe, and Europe’s goals, such as reaching our climate goals, but also at the same time being affordable, I see one future for Europe,” Birol said. “Electrify everything, as much as you can, electrify everything. Transportation, industry and so on.”

The IEA chief suggested a two-fold strategy to this end. The first is to massively invest in grid infrastructure, and the second is to lower energy prices.

“One is grids, grids, grids,” Birol said, emphasising the importance of revamping the power grids in Europe.

He noted that there are significant bottlenecks, as permits remain difficult to obtain, undermining the development of the vast, interconnected networks that deliver power to homes, businesses, and factories. Birol called this “the main barrier to the electrification of the European economy”.

“I will give one shocking number. Last year in Europe, we installed a record 80 gigawatts of renewable capacity. More than 400 gigawatts of renewable capacity were ready. But we couldn’t connect it to the grid. And it didn’t go to the households or the factories. This is completely crazy. Economically, it doesn’t make sense at all.”

Birol compared this push for green energy to developing the necessary infrastructure to build a fancy, efficient car, while forgetting to build roads.

Grid failures were also tied to the Iberian Peninsula blackout that left 60 million people without power in April 2025.

EU ‘Grids Package’

The ageing European grid was highlighted in a study by energy think tank Ember published this week, which found that the EU doesn’t have an issue generating green power — wind and solar generated more EU electricity than fossil fuels for the first time in 2025 — but that its “outdated” grid means it has a problem moving that power around.

In light of these issues, the European Commission unveiled a “Grids Package” at the end of last year to revamp the bloc’s obsolete electricity grid to increase electricity transmission across the EU27.

This move was lauded by Birol, who said he hoped this package would see the light of day, as this could “unblock many of the problems” faced by Europe.

Kıvanç Zaimler, CEO of Sabancı Holding, a leading Turkish investment holding company, who joined the panel, echoed that grid investment is “a must” but stated this must be an in-depth transformation using another car-themed analogy.

“We also have to think about efficiency through digitalisation. It’s like managing (road) traffic. You not only need additional roads, but you also need to solve traffic problems with navigation systems,” he said.

Tackling high energy costs

Another key issue in Europe, Birol said, is the high cost of electricity, which represents a major challenge for the competitiveness of European industry.

“Electricity prices in Europe are very high compared to, I don’t know, the competitors such as the US, such as China. They are three to four times higher here than in those countries,” he told Euronews.

Romanian Energy Minister Bogdan Ivan said the solution to high energy prices was to double energy resources in Europe.

“We (in Romania) are paying (among) the highest energy prices adjusted for people’s income,” Bogdan said.

He said this should be done by diversifying resources. “I want to use EU resources to finance nuclear power,” Ivan said. “That’s one of the best ways to bring cheap and baseline energy.” He argued that if the EU put too much emphasis on investing solely in wind and solar, it would “definitely have an issue”.

EU energy ministers have pledged to level energy prices across member states and prevent discrepancies between countries during their last official meeting in December.

Sweden’s Vattenfall President and CEO Anna Borg, who was also a panelist, agreed that diversification is key, also putting forward nuclear as a key component.

“We will need all the fossil-free technologies that we get our hands on. But it is important to understand that the European economy can, in the long run, only be competitive if we phase out fossil fuels.”

Challenging regulations

Reviewing regulations is central to addressing all the underlying challenges delaying European energy sovereignty, the panellists agreed, especially in lowering prices.

Borg argued that overlapping legislation should be addressed, as it often impedes the swift development of key projects.

“Sometimes when we want to build something, we first have to get approval according to one regulation and then another. And they are overlapping in looking at the same thing, but you can get different results,” she said, calling for a more holistic approach.

The Vattenfall representative said what is really needed are “stable regulatory and policy frameworks” that are long-term: “(Energy) investments are made to be there for many decades. And the best thing that we can do from a European perspective is to keep an alignment between the countries so that policies don’t differ too much within the EU.”

She argued that a lack of such frameworks and the back-and-forth on regulations creates uncertainty, risking market investments.

Zaimler agreed that companies find Europe’s regulatory processes tedious. “Europe has the longest permission or process time from zero to build a new renewable plant in terms of permissions.”

He compared the process to that of the US, which he claims is more focused on awarding permits. “I see more motivation in the US to speed up (these processes) compared to Europe.” This issue is also expected to be targeted by the EU’s Grid Package presented in December.

BERLIN, Jan 22 (Reuters) – The EU’s free trade deal with South American countries will probably be applied on a provisional basis as ‌soon as March, an EU diplomat told Reuters on Thursday, despite a looming challenge at the bloc’s top court.

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“The EU-Mercosur agreement shall be applied provisionally once the first Mercosur country has ratified it,” an EU diplomat told Reuters.

“That ‌will probably be Paraguay in March,” the diplomat added.

GERMAN BUSINESSES, CHANCELLOR MERZ CONDEMN DELAY

“The setback undermines Europe’s competitiveness and jeopardizes European jobs and prosperity,” Tobias Meyer, CEO of the logistics group DHL, told Reuters. He said it would be good if the pact could be enacted while the court investigated.

“Europe cannot afford to fall behind further,” he ⁠added.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz told delegates at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos on Thursday that he ‍regretted the European Parliament’s decision.

“But rest assured: We will not be stopped. The Mercosur deal is fair and balanced. There is no alternative to ‌it if ‌we want to have higher growth in Europe,” Merz said.

Critics of the deal, led by France, say it will increase imports of cheap beef, sugar and poultry and undercut domestic farmers.

French farmers have staged major demonstrations in Paris against the trade deal with hundreds of tractors blocking roads and landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower.

FRANCE SAYS PROVISIONAL IMPLEMENTATION WOULD BE UNDEMOCRATIC

The head of France’s CGB ⁠sugar beet producers’ lobby rejected any ⁠possibility of the accord taking ​effect provisionally.

“That would be a denial of democracy. Unacceptable!” Franck Sander told Reuters.

A spokesperson for France’s farm minister declined to comment.

Applying the pact provisionally, pending the ruling and parliamentary approval, could prove politically difficult given the likely backlash, and the European Parliament would retain the power to annul ‍it later.

“If (European Commission President) Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union, were to force through a provisional application, given the vote that took place in Strasbourg, it would constitute a form of democratic violation,” French government spokesperson Maud Bregeon told CNews TV, speaking before the EU diplomat’s comments.

The European Commission ​has said it will engage with EU governments and lawmakers before deciding what ‍to do next.

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