Three-way talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States opened Tuesday in the United Arab Emirates, as Washington renews its push to end the war that followed Moscow's all-out invasion nearly five years ago.

The two-day session in the UAE's capital, Abu Dhabi, is the first such meeting since February. It will focus on security guarantees, the White House said before the discussions. Russia sees NATO as a threat, and Ukraine wants to prevent future Russian invasions.

U.S. President Donald Trump has asked Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to convey proposals to Tehran aimed at ending the war, Al-Arabiya television reported on Monday.

“A secret visit to Tehran by an Iraqi delegation was headed by the Iraqi prime minister and Trump expressed his approval of proposals presented by the Iraqi prime minister during telephone conversations,” Al-Arabiya added.

Russia battered Ukraine's power grid again and Ukrainian forces hit another of Russia's biggest oil refineries, officials said Monday, hours before delegations from Moscow and Kyiv were due to meet for new U.S.-brokered talks on how to end the fighting.

Nearly five years after Russia invaded its neighbor, the two countries remain locked in battle with no sign that either side is ready to budge from its demands. The war has already killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and thousands of civilians, analysts and humanitarian organizations say.

For the first time since February, Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. negotiators are scheduled to hold talks on ending the full-scale war that is nearing the five-year mark, with security guarantees topping the agenda.

The two-day session starting Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, follows previous rounds of negotiations early this year that failed to produce any visible progress toward ending Europe's most devastating conflict since World War II.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet his counterparts from the Group of 7 industrialized democracies on Monday, with unresolved world crises on the agenda and questions about how President Donald Trump will approach foreign policy after his Republican Party's massive losses in the midterm elections.

Two days of talks among the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan in Paris coincide with major protests across Europe, including in the French capital.

Young supporters wore his name on their backs like a soccer star's, above the number 27. They sang about brass bands and revolution. Many had spent the fall protesting or blockading their schools.

Then in walked Jean-Luc Mélenchon: 75 years old, on his fourth presidential run and old enough to be their grandfather.

The U.S. military has announced it will create a 20-member task force to find ways to disrupt land routes into Iran that it says are used for shipments of weapons and illicit materials.

The restrictions would expand on a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports during the two countries' eight-month war, in which Tehran has also restricted passage through the critical Strait of Hormuz trade route, choking global energy supplies.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. military on Friday carried out new limited strikes on Iran, targeting an Iranian air defense system.

Iranian state media reported the sound of two explosions in the Suza area of Qeshm Island, which is in the crucial waterway for oil shipments.

Washington is offering a $20 million reward "and possible relocation" for information about Iran's nuclear program, the U.S. military said, as President Donald Trump reiterated Tehran wants to make a deal to end the war.

Iran said Saturday its military has grown "stronger" since the outset of its war with the United States, which has offered a $20 million reward for information about Tehran's nuclear program.