Ukraine, Russia hold peace talks in Geneva as Trump puts pressure on Kyiv

GENEVA – Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia concluded the first of two days of US-mediated peace talks in Geneva on Feb 17, with US President Donald Trump pressing Kyiv to act fast to reach a deal to end the four-year conflict.

Ahead of the negotiations in Switzerland, Russia carried out airstrikes overnight across swathes of Ukraine, severely damaging the power network in the southern port city of Odesa.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks left tens of thousands without heat and water.

“We are ready to move quickly towards a worthy agreement to end the war,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address, saying he was waiting for a report from the negotiating team in Geneva.

“The question for the Russians is: Just what do they want?”

Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Mr Rustem Umerov, the head of the National Security and Defence Council, said in a statement that the day’s talks had focused on “practical issues and the mechanics of possible decisions,” without providing details.

He said negotiations would resume on Feb 18 for a final day.

The Geneva meeting follows two rounds of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi that concluded without a major breakthrough as the two sides remained far apart on key issues such as the control of territory in eastern Ukraine.

Mr Trump is urging Moscow and Kyiv to strike an agreement to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945, though Mr Zelensky has complained that his country is facing more pressure to make concessions.

Before the talks began, Mr Umerov played down hopes for a significant step forward in Geneva, saying the Ukrainian delegation was working “without excessive expectations”.

Negotiating two crises at once

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were representing the Trump administration at the talks.

In a rare attempt to negotiate two major global crises simultaneously, they attended the morning’s indirect negotiations with Iranian officials in Geneva before crossing town to mediate the talks between Ukraine and Russia.

Mr Trump put the ball in Ukraine’s court when asked by reporters what he was expecting from the Feb 17 talks with Russia.

“Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you,” Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Russia is demanding that Ukraine cede the remaining 20 per cent of the eastern region of Donetsk that Moscow has failed to capture - something Kyiv refuses to do.

Delegations from several European countries were present in Geneva, according to four sources familiar with the matter, but did not attend the trilateral peace talks themselves.

The Europeans were invited after Mr Zelensky asked US officials to include them, one of the sources said, adding that they would be briefed by the Americans and Ukrainians about the discussions. Russia has in the past voiced its opposition to European involvement.

Mr Zelensky on Feb 17 called for Kyiv’s allies to increase pressure on Russia to reach a “real and just” peace deal via tougher sanctions and weapons supplies to Ukraine.

The Geneva round comes just days before the fourth anniversary, on Feb 24, of Russia’s full-scale invasion of its much smaller neighbour. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions have fled their homes, and many Ukrainian cities, towns and villages have been devastated by the conflict.

“One shouldn’t trust the Russians absolutely, not even a little,” said Ms Oksana Reviakina, 41, an internally displaced person from the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, when asked about the talks while sheltering in a Kyiv metro station during an air-raid alert.

Russia occupies about 20 per cent of Ukraine’s national territory, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region seized before the 2022 invasion. Its recent airstrikes on energy infrastructure have left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without heating and power during a harsh winter.

Breakthrough expectations low

The Kremlin said the Russian delegation was being led by Mr Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin whom Ukrainian negotiators have previously accused of lecturing them about history as an excuse for Russia’s invasion.

That has further lowered expectations for any significant breakthrough in Geneva.

Military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov was also expected to take part in the Geneva talks, while Mr Putin’s special envoy, Mr Kirill Dmitriev, was due to join a separate working group on economic issues.

Speaking at the annual Munich Security Conference on Feb 14, Mr Zelensky said he hoped the Geneva talks would prove “serious, substantive... but honestly sometimes it feels like the sides are talking about completely different things”. REUTERS