Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the latest round of trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US was “difficult”, but that the sides agreed further talks would take place.
“We can see that progress has been made but, for now, positions differ because the negotiations were difficult,” Mr Zelensky told reporters in a WhatsApp chat.
This morning’s talks lasted about two hours, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s top negotiator said.
Russia’s top negotiator said the two days of talks were “difficult”, but fresh talks would be held soon.
“They were difficult, but business-like. The next meeting will take place in the near future,” Russia’s Vladimir Medinsky told state media reporters after the talks in Geneva, without elaborating.
Vladimir Medinsky pictured as he left this morning’s talks
Earlier, Mr Zelensky accused Russia of seeking to delay the progress of ongoing peace negotiations after a “difficult” day of talks yesterday.
“Yesterday’s meetings were indeed difficult, and we can state that Russia is trying to drag out negotiations that could already have reached the final stage,” he wrote on X this morning.
He also said that Europe’s participation at the talks was vital for any agreements reached on halting the war to hold.
“We consider Europe’s participation in the process indispensable for the successful implementation of entirely feasible agreements,” he said.
He confirmed, following earlier reports, that Ukrainian and US negotiators had met on Tuesday with officials from the Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
The talks in Geneva were the latest diplomatic bid to halt the fighting which has killed hundreds of thousands, forced millions to flee and decimated much of eastern and southern Ukraine.
The United States has been pushing for an end to the nearly four-year war, but has failed to broker a compromise between Russia and Ukraine on the key issue of territory.
Two previous rounds of negotiations between the two sides in Abu Dhabi failed to yield a breakthrough.
US envoy Steve Witkoff, representing the Trump administration at the talks, said President Donald Trump’s diplomatic efforts had made strides in the US’s bid to end the conflict.
A protester holds a placard as a new round of talks take place in Geneva yesterday
“President Trump’s success in bringing both sides of this war together has brought about meaningful progress,” he wrote on social media, without elaborating.
“Both parties agreed to update their respective leaders and continue working towards a deal.”
Mr Zelensky said in his evening address that he was ready “to move quickly towards a worthy agreement to end the war” but questioned whether Russia was serious about peace.
“What do they want?” he added, accusing them of prioritising missile strikes over “real diplomacy”.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the ensuing conflict resulting in a tidal wave of destruction that has left entire cities in ruins.
Mr Zelensky has repeatedly said his country is being asked to make disproportionate compromises compared to Russia.
Mr Trump put pressure on Ukraine on Monday to make a deal, saying they “better come to the table, fast”.
Mr Zelensky told Axios yesterday it was “not fair” that Mr Trump kept calling on Ukraine to broker a deal, adding that lasting peace would not be achieved if “victory” was just handed to Russia.
“I hope it is just his tactics and not the decision,” Mr Zelensky said.
Volodymyr Zelensky said his country is being asked to make disproportionate compromises
Hopes for a breakthrough remain low. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had told journalists to expect no major news from the first day of talks.
‘Disregards peace efforts’
Even before talks were under way, Ukraine had accused Russia of undermining peace efforts by launching 29 missiles and 396 drones in attacks overnight into yesterday that authorities said killed four people and cut power to tens of thousands in southern Ukraine.
Yesterday, Ukraine’s general staff said Russia had fired 28 missiles and 109 guided aerial bombs at its territory since the beginning of the day.
“The extent to which Russia disregards peace efforts: a massive missile and drone strike against Ukraine right before the next round of talks in Geneva,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on social media.
Russia meanwhile accused Ukraine of launching more than 150 drones overnight into yesterday, mainly over southern regions and the Crimean peninsula – occupied by the Kremlin in 2014.
Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukraine – including the Crimean peninsula it seized in 2014 – and areas that Moscow-backed separatists had taken prior to the 2022 invasion.
It is pushing for full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region as part of any deal, and has threatened to take it by force if talks fail.
But Ukraine has rejected this deeply unpopular demand, which would be politically and militarily fraught, and signalled it will not sign a deal without security guarantees that deter Russia from invading again.
Russia has been slowly seizing territory across the sprawling front line for months.
But its wartime economic worries are mounting, with growth stagnating and a ballooning budget deficit as sanction-hit oil revenues drop to a five-year low.