“Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, this was another night of Russian terror,” foreign minister Andriy Sybiga said.

“Cynically, Putin ordered a brutal, massive missile strike against Ukraine right while delegations are meeting in Abu Dhabi to advance the America-led peace process.

“His missiles hit not only our people, but also the negotiation table,” he added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had overnight launched “over 370 attack drones and 21 missiles of various types”.

The first known direct contact between Ukrainian and Russian officials on the US-backed proposal began Friday.

Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov said the discussions focused “on the parameters for ending Russia’s war and the further logic of the negotiation process”.

An initial US draft drew heavy criticism in Kyiv and western Europe for hewing too closely to Moscow’s line, while later iterations prompted pushback from Russia for floating the idea of European peacekeepers.

Both sides say the fate of territory in the eastern Donbas region is one of the main outstanding issues in the search for a settlement to a war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and decimated parts of Ukraine.