Top Ukrainian negotiator says talks with US to continue in Davos

January 18 (Reuters) – Talks with U.S. officials on resolving the nearly four-year war with Russia will continue at the World Economic Forum, which opens this week in Davos, Switzerland, Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov said on Sunday.

Writing on Telegram, Umerov said that “the two-day talks in Florida with a US team, including Ambassador Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, focused on security guarantees and a post-war recovery plan for Ukraine.”

He gave no information as to whether any agreement was reached at the meeting.

“We agreed to continue working at the team level in the next phase of the consultations in Davos,” Umerov wrote.

Umerov said the two sides “discussed in depth” the two issues, “focusing on practical mechanisms and implementing and implementing them” in the latest of a series of meetings aimed at determining the details of the agreement.

He said his delegation reported last week on Russian attacks that severely damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and left hundreds of apartment buildings without heating and electricity.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it was important to outline the dire effects of Russian attacks because they showed Russia was not interested in diplomacy.

“If the Russians were seriously interested in ending the war, they would focus on diplomacy,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video speech. he said.

He said Ukrainian intelligence had determined that Russia was conducting reconnaissance at key locations in preparation for attacks, including targets linked to Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Saturday that there was evidence that Russia was considering attacking electricity substations that feed nuclear power plants.

Russia did not make any statement regarding the allegations.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski in Winnipeg; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Matthew Lewis)