Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a new round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks, significant democratic backsliding in the United States, and deadly Israeli strikes in Gaza.
Sub-Zero Temperatures
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators kicked off a second round of U.S.-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, on Wednesday. Both sides described initial conversations as productive, without elaborating on any specific progress made. But with the two-day meeting beginning just hours after Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine’s energy grid, European officials are accusing Moscow of lacking sincerity in its efforts to end the war.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a new round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks, significant democratic backsliding in the United States, and deadly Israeli strikes in Gaza.
Sub-Zero Temperatures
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators kicked off a second round of U.S.-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, on Wednesday. Both sides described initial conversations as productive, without elaborating on any specific progress made. But with the two-day meeting beginning just hours after Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine’s energy grid, European officials are accusing Moscow of lacking sincerity in its efforts to end the war.
Last Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to halt strikes on Kyiv until Feb. 1, at the personal request of U.S. President Donald Trump. At the time, the White House claimed that the agreement was made to give Ukraine a reprieve during the region’s “extreme cold,” though the Kremlin did not cite weather as a factor.
However, after Russian forces resumed their assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of exploiting the brief halt to stockpile missiles. “Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than turning to diplomacy,” Zelensky wrote on X.
According to Ukrainian officials, Russia launched 450 drones and more than 70 missiles, including 32 ballistic missiles, at Ukraine on Tuesday—striking residences and energy infrastructure amid sub-zero temperatures. More than 1,100 apartment buildings in Kyiv alone remain without heating. On Wednesday, Russian forces continued their assault with an attack on a crowded market in eastern Ukraine, killing at least seven people and wounding 15 others.
Russian troops will keep fighting until Kyiv makes “decisions” to bring the war to an end, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, putting the onus on Ukraine to concede some of its biggest sticking points in ongoing negotiations.
At the heart of talks remains Moscow’s demand that Kyiv surrender significant swaths of its territory. Russia currently occupies around 20 percent of Ukrainian land, including Crimea and parts of the Donbas. However, analysts estimate that Russian forces have only gained roughly 1.5 percent of additional Ukrainian territory in the last two years. Kyiv, meanwhile, argues that the conflict should be frozen along current battle lines and says that it will not unilaterally withdraw its forces from the areas of the Donbas still under Ukrainian control.
Also on the table is the possibility of European troops being sent to Ukraine. Moscow rejects having any Western troops in Ukraine, whereas Kyiv argues that such a deployment is essential for credible security guarantees. Ahead of talks in Abu Dhabi, NATO chief Mark Rutte told Zelensky that Kyiv’s European allies have committed to providing troops to Ukraine once a peace deal is reached.
Negotiations on Thursday are expected to continue focusing on practical solutions. This is the second round of trilateral talks since the Russia-Ukraine war began, with the first such dialogue occurring just last month. As of now, both Putin and Zelensky have rejected offers to meet in person—with Putin suggesting Russia or close ally Belarus host, and Zelensky responding with an invite to Ukraine.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Autocracy spreading. A smaller percentage of the world’s population is living under democracy than at any time since 1985, according to Human Rights Watch’s annual country-by-country report, which was released on Wednesday. Some 72 percent of the world’s population is estimated to be living under autocracy. Significant democratic backsliding in the United States as well as increasing oppression in Russia and China are listed as major drivers of the trend. Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank also came under heavy criticism.
Pressure from Trump on the international rules-based order is imperiling the global norms that rights activists rely on to be effective, according to the report, which lambasted the U.S. president for a range of actions, including undermining faith in elections; curtailing rights and protections for women, transgender and intersex people, and people with disabilities; and abusing government power to target political opponents.
A few bright spots highlighted by the report were efforts by South Korean lawmakers to hold former President Yoon Suk-yeol accountable through impeachment for his late 2024 attempt to impose martial law, and Americans asserting their rights through civil actions, such as holding “No Kings” protests and monitoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.—Rachel Oswald
Gaza violence undermines cease-fire. Israeli strikes and tank shelling killed at least 24 people in Gaza on Wednesday, including children. The Israeli military said the strikes were in response to an attack by militants that left a soldier badly wounded.
Although the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza officially began on Oct. 10, 2025, some observers have questioned whether there is truly a truce amid ongoing Israeli strikes in the enclave. More than 500 Palestinians have been killed since the cease-fire began. Four Israeli troops have been killed during the same period.
While some aspects of Trump’s peace plan have moved forward, ongoing violence in Gaza is indicative of the myriad challenges that remain on the ground. Trump recently announced the start of the second phase of the cease-fire and the makeup of the so-called Board of Peace that he’s chairing, but key aspects of the plan remain up in the air—including the disarmament of Hamas, the further withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the deployment of an international stabilization force. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire, with U.N. officials warning in recent weeks that the crisis in the territory is far from over.—John Haltiwanger
Deadly migrant crossing. A Greek Coast Guard patrol vessel and a speedboat carrying Afghan and Moroccan migrants collided in the eastern Aegean Sea late Tuesday, killing at least 15 people. Search-and-rescue operations are still underway off the coast of Chios island, as it is unclear exactly how many people were on the migrant boat when it crashed.
Greek authorities accused the “smugglers” piloting the migrant boat of “failing to comply with the Coast Guard’s visual and audible signals” to turn around and said that they engaged in dangerous maneuvers such as “moving without navigation lights” before veering into the Greek vessel and capsizing. However, the BBC noted that in another deadly migrant boat incident involving the Greek Coast Guard in 2023, the initial, official Greek account of what happened turned out not to be the whole story.
Migrant crossings from Turkey via the Aegean Sea dropped in recent years, which Greece’s migration minister has attributed to better cooperation with the Turkish Coast Guard. Instead, more people are trying to reach Greece from North Africa. Athens’s conservative government has led the charge across Europe to crack down on immigration, temporarily freezing asylum applications last July and passing legislation in September that criminalizes asylum-seekers who stay in the country after their applications are rejected.
Odds and Ends
The film Melania, chronicling the U.S. first lady’s experience in the lead-up to Trump’s second inauguration, premiered worldwide last Friday, and the reviews have been less than stellar. According to the movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, just 5 percent of the 39 reviews it analyzed gave Melania a positive rating.
However, critics seem to be more positive toward Monster’s Paradise, an opera that premiered last weekend in Hamburg, Germany, that features a Trump-styled “President-King.” Cowritten by Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, the performance subjects audiences to the ravings of a gluttonous, diaper-wearing ruler who commands a gilded Oval Office while being attacked by vampires in Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog costumes.
Great Job Alexandra Sharp & the Team @ World Brief – Foreign Policy for sharing this story.
