Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of attempting to prolong peace talks as a second day of US-brokered meetings concluded in Geneva on Wednesday.
“Russia is trying to drag out negotiations that could already have reached the final stage,” Mr Zelenskyy said on X.
Mr Zelenskyy described the latest round of trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US as “difficult”, but said 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,” he said in a WhatsApp chat.
There was some progress on “military issues”, including the location of the front line and ceasefire monitoring, according to a Ukrainian diplomatic source.
Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, called the discussions “intensive and substantive”. While a number of issues were clarified, Ukraine's goal remains a just and sustainable peace, he said.
The talks lasted about two hours, the head of Russia’s delegation, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, said.
It is understood that after the talks concluded, Kremlin negotiator Mr Medinsky returned to the venue and held a closed-door meeting with the Ukrainian side for almost two hours. However, no details from that meeting have been given.
Mr Umerov also met representatives of the US, France, the UK, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. “We consider Europe’s participation in the process indispensable for the successful implementation of entirely feasible agreements,” Mr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday.
US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, were present in Geneva, as they were at two earlier rounds in the United Arab Emirates since January.
Mr Witkoff said on Wednesday that there had been “meaningful progress” during the previous day’s talks, with both sides agreeing to continue work towards a deal. Still, the negotiations appeared to yield little progress even as the discussions were said to be broader in scope than in the Abu Dhabi meetings.
Central among the unresolved issues is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand that Ukraine hand over territory in its eastern Donetsk region that Moscow has failed to conquer in fighting dating back to 2014.
But Dr Olga Vlasova, a Russia-born political scientist at Kings College London, argued that the peace talks were conducted by Moscow “to give hope to Russian society that has a huge war fatigue already,” she told The National.
“The Kremlin needs to give some hope to ordinary people saying that we are engaged in negotiations, Trump is our guy and all the brands and shops like Ikea will be back and everything will be good again in Russia. That is why they are holding these talks.”
Mr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that he had told his country’s negotiators to discuss the future of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which Russian forces seized early in the full-scale invasion, as well as Moscow’s demand to be given territory it doesn’t control in Ukraine’s east.
Mr Zelenskyy separately told Axios on Tuesday that the Ukrainian people would reject unilaterally withdrawing from and ceding land to Russia. US officials have previously said that the sharing of power produced by the nuclear plant, the largest in Europe, would be a critical part of any agreement reached.
Mr Medinsky was part of previous negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul between May and July last year, and also weeks after the start of the February 2022 invasion. He did not participate in the Abu Dhabi talks.
