‘Difficult’ Ukraine peace talks end abruptly, with Zelensky saying Russia is stalling

GENEVA – Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Geneva ended abruptly on Feb 18 after only two hours, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that the discussions had been “difficult” and accusing Russia of deliberately seeking to delay progress towards a deal to end the four-year-old war.

The two days of US-mediated peace talks in Switzerland took place as US President Donald Trump has twice in recent days suggested it was up to Ukraine and Mr Zelensky to take steps to ensure that the talks were successful.

“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 shortly after talks concluded.

Mr Rustem Umerov, the head of Kyiv’s negotiating team, said separately that the second day had been “intensive and substantive”.

Both sides were working towards decisions that can be sent to their presidents, he said.

Russia’s chief negotiator, former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky, told reporters that further negotiations would be held soon, without specifying a date.

Earlier on Feb 18, Mr Zelensky had accused Russia of “trying to drag out negotiations that could already have reached the final stage”.

Ukrainian officials have routinely accused Moscow – which has carried out a winter bombing campaign against Ukraine’s energy system and pursued its battlefield offensive – of negotiating in bad faith.

Pressure from Trump

In an interview with US website Axios published on Feb 17, Mr Zelensky was quoted as saying that it was

“not fair” that Mr Trump kept publicly calling on Ukraine

, and not Russia, to make concessions in negotiating terms for a peace plan.

Mr Trump had told reporters on Feb 16: “Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you.”

Mr Zelensky also said any plan requiring Ukraine to give up territory that Russia had not captured in the eastern Donbas region would be rejected by Ukrainians if put to a referendum.

“I hope it is just his (Trump’s) tactics and not the decision,” Axios quoted Mr Zelensky as saying in the interview.

Push for European involvement

Ukrainian officials have been pushing for greater involvement of Kyiv’s European allies in the peace process, with Mr Zelensky saying ahead of the talks on Feb 18 that it was indispensable.

Leading European nations – including France, Germany and Britain – have been strong supporters of Kyiv’s stance.

The talks came just days before the fourth anniversary of

Russia’s 2022 invasion of its much smaller neighbour

.

Hundreds 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 denies deliberately targeting civilians.

Russian source called talks ‘very tense’

Mr Umerov said on Feb 17 that the first day of talks had focused on “practical issues and the mechanics of possible decisions”, without providing details.

However, Russian news agencies quoted a source as saying that the Feb 17 talks were “very tense” and lasted six hours in different bilateral and trilateral formats.

Ukrainian government bonds fell as much as 1.9 cents on the US dollar in morning trade in Europe on reports of stalled progress at the talks.

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

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.

Russia occupies about 20 per cent of Ukraine’s national territory, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region seized before the 2022 full-scale invasion.

Its recent air strikes on energy infrastructure have left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without heating and power during a harsh winter. REUTERS