Doubts over next round of Ukraine peace talks
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 January 2026
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that US-mediated talks planned to take place in Abu Dhabi on Sunday may be delayed. In his Sunday. Zelensky said Kyiv was prepared to work on peace plans and that Kyiv was preparing for them to take place next week. His remarks came as Ukraine faced rolling power cuts amid freezing temperatures.
Also on the programme: the renowned Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei tells us about his first return to China in ten years; and new evidence about the world’s earliest pandemic, the Plague of Justinian.
PICTURE: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, Ukraine January 16, 2026 CREDIT:REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.8 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service, coming to live from London. |
| 0:13.4 | I'm James Kamara Sami. |
| 0:15.1 | Productive and constructive, that's how the US special envoy for Ukraine. |
| 0:20.0 | Steve Wittkoff described his talks today in Florida |
| 0:22.3 | with his Russian opposite number, Kiril Dmitriev. The US-Russia discussions were expected to be a prelude to a new round of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, including Ukraine on Sunday, although those are now in question. |
| 0:35.2 | President Zelensky said this evening he was waiting to hear from the United States |
| 0:38.8 | about further meetings about ending the fighting in his country. |
| 0:42.6 | On Friday, the Ukrainian leader had floated the possibility that the talks could be postponed |
| 0:47.5 | because of developments between the United States and Iran. |
| 0:51.9 | Well, on Thursday a day earlier, President Trump has said President Putin had |
| 0:55.5 | agreed to halt Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities during the current cold spell, adding that it was |
| 1:01.5 | very nice. Ukrainians shivering in temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius will have found other |
| 1:07.5 | ways to describe that gesture, especially when it became clear that the Putin |
| 1:11.7 | pause only lasts until tomorrow. In the capital Kiev today, the entire metro system stopped |
| 1:17.8 | working for several hours after what were described as technical malfunction. The first time that |
| 1:23.3 | has happened since Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022. |
| 1:32.2 | Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure mean that many people are without heating at home, but some residents of the Ukrainian capital decided today to throw a party on the |
| 1:36.2 | frozen Dnipro River in order to stay warm, and the BBC's Abduljalil Abdurasolov sent this report. |
| 1:45.8 | I am near the frozen river of Nipra, and there are probably about 500 people, maybe even more, |
| 1:52.3 | who gathered here for a party. There is a DJ, there's music, people dance, some volunteers |
| 1:58.0 | distribute food, kids, ledge. It's amazing to see this. |
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