As Ukraine and Russia confirm new round of peace talks with US, Zelenskyy says it’s up to Trump

Kiev— The governments of Russia and Ukraine confirmed Friday that they will participate in a third round of US-brokered peace talks next week, on February 17-18 in Geneva. There have already been two rounds of talks under this trilateral format so far this year, held in Abu Dhabi, but next week’s session will be the first on European soil, and will arrive a few days early. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth year.

Neither side has expressed optimism that the negotiations will result in a comprehensive ceasefire agreement, but there has been some progress on other issues. Notably, both sides agreed to a temporary pause in attacks on energy infrastructure in late January and then, after the latest round of talks, carried out the First prisoner exchange in five months..

The mere fact that negotiations continued, with relative continuity in the teams sitting around the table, also suggested that there was room to move forward.

But there have been many doubts in kyiv since the discussions began.

President Trump said the pause in attacks on each country’s energy infrastructure would last a week. But it ended after just four days, when Russia attacked Ukraine with a new barrage of 450 drones and more than 60 missiles.

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Asked by journalists in kyiv this week whether future talks could at least produce a longer-lasting truce, even if it were still limited to attacks on electrical infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “We have not received any response from the Russians. If anything, the opposite could be said: we received responses in the form of drones and missile attacks. This indicates that, for now, they are not ready for the energy ceasefire.”

The composition of the negotiating teams has also changed, which some analysts have considered as an indicator of possible progress on more technical issues.

During both meetings in Abu Dhabi, the Ukrainian team included Kyrylo Budanov, the former military intelligence chief who now serves as Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, while the Russian delegation was led by Igor Kostyukov, the head of the GRU military intelligence service.

“When military meets military, they can progress, they speak the same language,” Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Strategic Industries, told News themezone last week. “Concrete measures and steps within security guarantees: the military on both sides are well positioned to discuss.”

However, next week in Geneva, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky will replace Kostyukov as head of the Russian delegation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

Medinsky led the Russian team in a round of talks with Ukrainian officials in March 2022, in Belarus and Istanbul, which went nowhere as his team made sweeping claims over occupied Ukrainian territory and demanded that kyiv effectively give up its sovereign military power. He is known for writing ultra-nationalist school textbooks that question Ukraine’s right to exist and for his close relationship with President Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky has saying The Trump administration wants both sides to reach a deal to end the war in June. But in kyiv, officials question whether Washington is willing to exert the kind of pressure on Moscow that would make such a timeline feasible.

“As for whether I think the war can be ended,” Zelenskyy told reporters this week, “it doesn’t just depend on Ukraine. It also depends on the United States, which must put pressure — forgive me for saying ‘must,’ but there’s no other way to say it — must put pressure on Russia.”