Summary
The United States is brokering another round of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Geneva, but the chances of a meaningful breakthrough appear limited as both sides prepare to defend their positions on the hardest issues. A Ukrainian delegation was set to travel to Switzerland for Tuesday-Wednesday meetings ahead of next week’s fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, according to reporting from Kyiv.
U.S.-brokered diplomacy has continued for about a year under President Donald Trump’s administration, but the discussions have not yet produced an end to fighting. As Trump returned to Washington from Florida and told reporters the Geneva negotiations are “going to ‘big talks,’” he also said Ukraine “better come to the table fast,” setting a push for momentum and a June deadline for a settlement, the report said.
Officials on both sides indicated that they are not expecting rapid movement. The report said expectations for significant progress were low because the negotiating positions on key issues remain largely unchanged, even as the U.S. seeks a path to an agreement.
Territory is shaping up as a central dispute. The future of Ukrainian land that Russia occupies—or still covets—was described as a key issue for the Geneva talks, reflecting the broader challenge of reconciling battlefield realities with any settlement framework.
On the Russian side, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the talks in Geneva will deal with what he described as a “broader range of issues related to the territories and other issues connected to the demands that we have.” He did not provide details on what those other demands include.
Ahead of the meeting, both sides also described ongoing military activity. A Ukrainian Air Force statement said Russia launched 62 long-range strike drones and six missiles of various types at Ukraine overnight, while a Russian official in the western Bryansk region said its air defenses shot down 229 Ukrainian drones in the previous 24 hours, adding that no other region faced as many simultaneous drone attacks in a single day, according to the report.
The Russian delegation leadership will include Vladimir Medinsky, who led Moscow’s negotiators in earlier direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in March 2022, the report said. Kremlin spokesman Peskov also said Igor Kostyukov, head of Russia’s military intelligence, and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin would be part of the delegation, and that Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev would travel separately to meet U.S. officials about economic cooperation.
On the Ukrainian side, the report said Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, posted a Telegram photograph showing himself with members of the negotiating team. It said the delegation in Geneva would be led by Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council chief, and that the delegations were expected to report back to their leaders before any compromises discussed in Switzerland could be accepted.
The setting also underscores how hard it is for civilians and officials to travel during the war. The report said entering or leaving Ukraine can require a long overland journey because the country’s airspace is closed, including for VIPs, and that even as negotiations move forward, the war’s operational realities remain tied to the same disputes the talks aim to resolve.