Russia shows no signs of rushing to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine and

Geneva — Russia signaled Thursday that it was in no rush to reach an agreement to end its war against ukrainehours after it attacked the neighboring country with hundreds of drones and missiles and as American and Ukrainian officials met in Geneva to discuss efforts to end the war.

President Trump has been pushing for an end to Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, but has so far failed to broker any agreement between Moscow and kyiv. Previous rounds of U.S.-led negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Geneva and Abu Dhabi failed to reach a compromise, with Moscow’s demand to formally assume ownership of a vast swath of Ukraine proving a key sticking point.

Russia, which for years has refused to budge on its demand for full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, said on Thursday it was too early to make predictions about when a deal would be finalized.

“Have you heard anything from us about deadlines? We don’t have deadlines, we have tasks. We are fulfilling them,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state media in Moscow, two days after the meeting began. fifth year of the full-scale invasion of your country from Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said it was too early to make “forecasts” or say what stage the peace process is at, telling state media that “it would be a big mistake to try now to define some kind of stage or make some kind of forecast. I don’t want to make those mistakes.”

kyiv has called a leaders’ meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to break the deadlock, and Ukraine hoped to lay the groundwork for such a summit during Thursday’s talks with U.S. officials.

“Today in Geneva we continue our work within the framework of the negotiation process. A bilateral meeting has begun with the American delegation, with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner,” said Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, adding that Ukraine was seeking to “synchronize positions” with Washington before new trilateral talks in March.

Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev was scheduled to be in Geneva on Thursday, although there was no indication he planned to meet with the Ukrainian side, according to Russian state media.

“Dmitriev plans to arrive in Geneva on Thursday to continue negotiations with the Americans on economic issues,” Russian news agency TASS said, citing an anonymous source.

Talks between Moscow and kyiv remain stalled over the fate of the Donbas, the industrial region in eastern Ukraine that has been the epicenter of the fighting. Russia is pushing for full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which forms a significant portion of the Donbas, and has threatened to take it by force if kyiv does not budge at the negotiating table.

But Ukraine rejected the demand, saying it would not sign an agreement without security guarantees that would deter Russia from invading again.

“The aggressor should not receive any reward for the war,” Zelenskyy reiterated in a social media post on Thursday. “For peace to truly last, everyone must understand that it is not just words.”

Another night of Russian drone and missile attacks against Ukraine

Hours before the meeting, Russian forces launched some 420 drones and 39 missiles into Ukraine, wounding more than two dozen people in at least six different regions, according to authorities.

News journalists heard several explosions in central kyiv shortly after authorities warned that Russia had launched its attack.

According to authorities, the attacks hit an electrical substation in the southern region of Odessa, as well as a school building in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

“Destruction has been recorded in eight regions, with many private homes and apartment buildings damaged,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy spoke with President Trump on Wednesday before the talks, and US envoys Witkoff and Kushner participated in the 30-minute call.

“We hope that this meeting (in Geneva) will create an opportunity to bring talks to the level of leaders. President Trump supports this sequence of steps,” Zelenskyy said.

After initially refusing to negotiate with Russia, Zelenskyy has repeatedly said that the only way to resolve difficult issues, including territory, is through a meeting with Putin.