A motorcade carrying Russia’s negotiating delegation arrives at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva on Tuesday ahead of U.S.-mediated talks with Ukraine on ending the war. Photo by Cyril Zingaro/EPA
A third round of U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine were due to get underway in Switzerland on Tuesday with low expectations of any meaningful progress amid ongoing Russian strikes and Ukrainian counter-strikes.
Overnight, at least three people were killed and nine injured in Ukraine after a major aerial assault by Russian forces with 400 drones and 30 missiles targeting 12 regions, including Odessa where power infrastructure sustained “incredibly serious” damage that would take months to repair.
Moscow said Ukraine launched 150 drones against targets in Russia, setting an oil refinery ablaze.
Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia’s strikes were a demonstration of the “extent to which Russia disregards peace efforts.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov played down hopes for the talks, at which Russia will be represented by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky and Ukraine by national security advisor Rustem Umerov, saying he didn’t think anyone “should expect any news today.”
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, will act as mediators.
The talks, which are expected to run through Wednesday, are the third time the three parties have met.
The previous rounds in Abu Dhabi in January and earlier this month failed to make headway on the main sticking points of Ukrainian territory Moscow is demanding and the security guarantees Kyiv insists upon to ward off Russia from coming back for more of Ukraine in the future.
The Ukrainian side was said to be concerned about the reappearance of Medinsky at the head of the Russian delegation because he is an ideologue and hard-liner whose fallback position in earlier negotiations last year was that Russia was willing to fight on for as long as it takes.
However, Trump on Monday appeared to point the finger at Ukraine for the lack of progress, saying Kyiv had “better come to the table fast.”
Separately, Zelensky warned Monday it would be “a big mistake to allow the aggressor to take something” and called on the United States to focus on resolving the security guarantees issue, which is stalled over Russia conditioning agreement on no Western boots on the ground in Ukraine.
Part of a peace plan being pushed by the Trump administration proposes Kyiv pull back its troops from parts of its Donetsk and Luhansk provinces (the Donbas) that Russia is demanding and for those areas to form a demilitarized “economic” zone.
The current effort dates back to Trump’s U.S.-Russia summit with President Vladimir Putin in Alaska in August.
Trump called the summit to get a cease-fire but ended up with a loose agreement to end the war through Ukraine, giving up territory in exchange for Russia agreeing to accept NATO-style security guarantees for Ukraine.
