War-weary Ukrainians face blackouts as US-brokered talks offer little hope

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — A U.S.-brokered meeting between officials from Ukraine, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates concluded without a breakthrough, even as participants characterized the session as a constructive starting point.

The diplomatic efforts were overshadowed by continued Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which have triggered widespread power outages in Kyiv during the height of winter. Ahead of the second day of negotiations, Russia launched a massive barrage of more than 100 drones and missiles at the Ukrainian capital.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the discussions focused on potential parameters for ending the war. He emphasized that any path toward a resolution would require oversight from the United States.

Despite the high-level talks, the Ukrainian public remains deeply skeptical. After nearly four years of conflict, widespread war fatigue has set in, and many residents no longer react to the air raid sirens that sound daily.

Both civilians and experts in Ukraine expressed a sense of exhaustion and little hope that the intervention of global powers would bring a swift end to the fighting.

The recent summit in Abu Dhabi appears to have been more symbolic than substantive, underscoring a strategic deadlock in which neither side possesses the political incentive to offer concessions. Moscow currently perceives itself as holding the upper hand, buoyed by incremental battlefield gains and the prospect of a recalibrated relationship with the incoming Trump administration. For Kyiv, however, the scale of national sacrifice to date makes the prospect of territorial surrender a political impossibility.

War fatigue has transitioned from a psychological state to a decisive strategic factor. Russia’s systematic targeting of energy infrastructure is a calculated effort to degrade civilian morale and incite "domestic chaos," a term recently highlighted by a former advisor to President Zelenskyy. These pressures are manifesting in tangible societal fractures, as evidenced by localized friction over resource scarcity, such as the distribution of power generators.

This internal strain is compounded by a shifting diplomatic reality. Expert Oleksandr Khara’s assessment that Ukraine has "partners, not allies" points to a growing realization in Kyiv that international support—particularly from the United States—remains volatile and transactional. Ongoing delays in security assistance reinforce the view that Western backing is increasingly conditional. Within this framework, the conflict is likely to persist as a grueling war of attrition; while both nations face exhaustion, the civilian population in Ukraine continues to bear the immediate and most acute burden of the struggle.

The conflict in Ukraine has had no discernible impact on the economic life of the Vietnamese-American community, whether in our nail salons and phở restaurants or regarding visa processing for categories like F2B and EB-5. However, the imagery of a grinding war, the displacement of civilians, and the skepticism surrounding peace negotiations carry a heavy emotional weight. For the generation that lived through the war in Vietnam, these scenes serve as a haunting reminder of the true human cost of conflict and the profound difficulty of securing a meaningful peace.