Authors: John Revell and Olivia Le Poivin
GENEVA, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia ended abruptly after just two hours in Geneva on Wednesday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying the talks were “difficult” and accusing Russia of deliberately seeking to delay progress on a deal to end four years of war.
U.S.-brokered peace talks in Switzerland have been ongoing, with U.S. President Donald Trump suggesting twice in recent days that Ukraine and Zelensky should take steps to ensure their success.
“Yesterday’s meeting was indeed difficult and we can say that Russia is trying to delay negotiations that could have entered the final stages,” Zelensky wrote on X on Wednesday, following media reports that the first day of negotiations was tense.
Minutes after Zelensky’s comments, Russian state news agency RIA reported that the talks had ended. Russia’s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky told reporters in the hotel lobby in Geneva where the talks were held that further talks would take place soon, without specifying a date.
A Ukrainian official confirmed that the talks in Geneva had ended, saying they lasted “about two hours.”
In an interview with US website Axios on Tuesday, Zelensky said it was “unfair” that Trump continues to publicly call on Ukraine, rather than Russia, to make concessions on negotiating terms of the peace plan.
Zelensky also said that any plan to require Ukraine to give up territory not occupied by Russia in the eastern Donbas region would be rejected by Ukrainians if it were put to a referendum.
“I hope this is just his strategy and not his decision,” Axios quoted Zelensky as saying in the interview.
“Ukraine better get back to the negotiating table as soon as possible. That’s what I’m telling you,” Trump told reporters on Monday.
Russian source calls talks ‘very tense’
The talks come days ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbor. Hundreds of thousands 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.
The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, said Tuesday’s talks focused on “practical issues and the mechanisms of possible decisions” but gave no details.
However, Russian news agencies quoted sources as saying Tuesday’s talks were “very tense” and lasted for six hours in different bilateral and trilateral formats.
Ukrainian government bonds fell 1.9 cents against the dollar in early European trading amid reports that progress in negotiations had stalled.
Before the talks began, Umerov played down hopes of significant progress in Geneva, saying the Ukrainian delegation’s work was “without exaggerated expectations.”
Before the Geneva meeting, two rounds of talks were held in Abu Dhabi under the mediation of the United States. However, as the two sides still had great differences on key issues such as territorial control in eastern Ukraine, no major breakthrough was achieved in the talks.
Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbass region it captured before a full-scale invasion in 2022. Recent airstrikes on energy infrastructure have left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without heat and power during a harsh winter.
(Reporting by John Revell, Olivia Le Poidevin and Ron Popeski; Editing by Michael Perry, Alexandra Hudson)