Russia Taps Spy Chief Kostyukov for Abu Dhabi Peace Talks With US and Ukraine

Moscow is putting its top military spy at the peace table. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday that Igor Kostyukov, who heads Russia's military intelligence agency, will join trilateral talks with the United States and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Interfax.

Kostyukov won't travel alone. The Russian delegation also includes Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, deputy foreign ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin, and senior General Staff officer Yuri Zhigarlovsky, plus other military and diplomatic officials.

US envoy Steve Witkoff said earlier the sessions are meant to take on ending the war, postwar security arrangements and de-escalation. That's a heavy agenda for two days in the Emirati capital.

The diplomacy is landing on a battlefield that never went quiet. Ukraine's Air Forces said Saturday it intercepted 149 Russian drones overnight, out of 172 launched, and neutralized four Russian missiles. The drones were Shahed, Gerbera and Parodiya types, the military said in a Telegram post.

Russia's Defense Ministry countered with its own tally, claiming its forces took down 411 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over Bryansk, Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk, Lipetsk, Oryol, Rostov, Saratov, Samara, Tula, Crimea, and the Azov and Black Seas. Moscow has said it was hitting military-industrial, energy and transport infrastructure around Kyiv.

Kyiv is feeling it. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Saturday the capital faces an extremely difficult energy situation after overnight strikes damaged energy facilities in the Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions, knocking out electricity, heating and water. He gave no timetable for restoring services. Russia's Defense Ministry said it used high-precision ground-based weapons and long-range strike drones against facilities supporting the Ukrainian army, per RIA Novosti, while Klitschko said the attack also damaged the city's Northern Bridge and injured at least five people.