Another round of U.S.-brokered talks between representatives of Russia and Ukraine is scheduled for next week in Geneva, just days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, officials in Moscow and Kiev said Friday, the Associated Press reported.
The talks will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to a statement by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, as reported by Russian news agencies, as reported by the AP.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s communications adviser, Dmytro Lytvyn, confirmed that a new round of negotiations will continue.
The discussions come amid ongoing intense fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometer front line, persistent Russian strikes on civilian areas and Ukraine’s energy grid, and near-daily long-range drone strikes in Kiev targeting military facilities inside Russia.
Previous US efforts to find consensus on ending the war, most recently two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, have failed to resolve complex issues such as the future of Ukraine’s industrial heartland of the Donbas, which is largely occupied by Russian forces.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that the United States had set a June deadline for Ukraine and Russia to reach an agreement. Earlier deadlines set by Donald Trump have largely passed without significant results, the AP reported.
Zelensky in Munich
On Friday, Volodymyr Zelenskyi visited Munich, Germany, and inspected the first joint Ukrainian-German company for the production of drones. Germany was the main supporter of Ukraine throughout the conflict.
He was also scheduled for bilateral and multilateral talks at the Munich Security Conference, which brings together top global security officials.
Since the start of hostilities in 2014 and the full Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, the larger Russian military has occupied roughly 20% of Ukraine. However, its progress on the battlefield was slow and costly in terms of personnel and equipment, the AP reported.
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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that “the Russians are not winning (the war) as some think.”
“This so-called Russian bear is not there,” he told reporters. “It’s basically still a snail’s pace what we’re seeing in Ukraine — that’s how the Russians are moving inside Ukraine, very slowly, staggering losses.”
Finding compromises is hard
The previous two rounds of trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi reportedly focused on military issues such as a possible buffer zone and monitoring of the ceasefire. The return of Medinsky, who pushed for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s maximalist peace terms, could signal a shift to political issues in the next round of talks.
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The Ukrainian delegation will again be led by Rustem Umerov, head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
It was not clear which American officials would be in Geneva. Ambassadors Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner represented the Trump administration in the UAE capital.
A war of attrition
A grim war of attrition continues as both sides negotiate.
A Russian strike in eastern Ukraine killed three brothers between the ages of 8 and 19 overnight, authorities said. Their mother and grandmother survived but suffered multiple injuries, the Donetsk regional prosecutor’s office said.
In Odessa, a Russian strike on the city’s port and energy infrastructure killed one person and injured six others, officials said.
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Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Friday that its air defense intercepted 58 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions and annexed Crimea overnight.
Of those, 43 drones were shot down in the Volgograd region, where the debris injured three people, including a 12-year-old boy, the governor there said. Ukraine has recently focused its operations on the Volgograd oil refinery.
Key things
- The upcoming talks in Geneva could be crucial in resolving critical issues in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
- Previous US-led negotiations have struggled to find common ground, underscoring the complexity of the situation.
- Civilian casualties continue to rise during ongoing military operations, highlighting the urgent need for diplomatic solutions.