Land in focus at peace talks between Russia and Ukraine
John Revill |
Representatives of Ukraine and Russia will meet in Geneva for a fresh round of US-mediated peace talks that the Kremlin says are likely to focus on land – the main sticking point.
US President Donald Trump is pressing Moscow and Kyiv to reach a deal to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945, though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has complained his country is facing the greatest pressure to make concessions.
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.
“This time, the idea is to discuss a broader range of issues, including, in fact, the main ones. The main issues concern both the territories and everything else related to the demands we have put forward,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
The venue for talks on Tuesday and Wednesday has switched to the Swiss lakeside city after Abu Dhabi hosted two rounds of talks that both sides described as constructive but which failed to reach any major breakthrough.
The Geneva round comes just days before the fourth anniversary, on February 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.
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 air strikes on energy infrastructure have left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without heating and power during the course of a harsh winter.
The Kremlin said the Russian delegation would be led by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin.
However, the fact that Ukrainian negotiators have accused Medinsky in the past of lecturing them about history as an excuse for Russia’s invasion has further lowered expectations for any significant breakthrough in Geneva.
Military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov will also take part in the talks while Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev will be part of a separate working group on economic issues.
Speaking at the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Zelenskiy said he hoped the Geneva talks would prove “serious, substantive … but honestly sometimes it feels like the sides are talking about completely different things”.
Kyiv’s delegation will be led by Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, and Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov. Senior presidential aide Serhiy Kyslytsya will also be present.
Before the delegation left for Geneva, Umerov said Ukraine’s goal of “a sustainable and lasting peace” remained unchanged.
As well as land, Russia and Ukraine also remain far apart on issues such as who should control the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the possible role of Western troops in postwar Ukraine.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will represent the Trump administration at the talks, a source told Reuters. They are also attending talks in Geneva this week with Iran.
Reuters