Skip to main content
Thursday, October 29, 2026Oct 29

This story is free to read.

Ukrainian delegation arrives in US for peace talks as Russia hammers energy sites

Snow covered, damaged Russian military vehicles are on display in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Snow covered, damaged Russian military vehicles are on display in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky) Snow covered, damaged Russian military vehicles are on display in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian delegation arrived in the United States for talks Saturday on a U.S.-led diplomatic push to end the nearly 4-year-old war as Russian attacks again took aim at Ukraine’s power grid, cutting electricity and heating in freezing temperatures.

Kyrylo Budanov, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said he arrived in the U.S. to discuss “the details of the peace agreement.”

Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Budanov said he, together with Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Davyd Arakhamia, would meet with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.

Also on Telegram, Zelenskyy said Saturday that the principal task for the Ukrainian delegation was to convey how ongoing Russian strikes are undermining diplomacy.

The strikes, he said, are “constantly worsening even the small opportunities for dialogue that existed. The American side must understand this.”