US-brokered Russia-Ukraine talks set for Geneva next week—all you need to know

Another round of US-brokered negotiations between representatives of Russia and Ukraine is set for next week in Geneva, just days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, officials in Moscow and Kyiv said Friday, as reported by Associated Press.

The talks will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to a statement from Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, as reported by Russian news agencies, as reported by AP.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s communications adviser, Dmytro Lytvyn, confirmed that a new round of negotiations will move forward.

The discussions come amid ongoing intense fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometre front line, persistent Russian strikes on civilian areas and Ukraine’s power grid, and Kyiv’s near-daily long-range drone attacks targeting military-related sites inside Russia.

Previous US-led 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 difficult issues, such as the future of Ukraine’s Donbas industrial heartland that is largely occupied by Russian forces.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated last week that the United States has set a June deadline for Ukraine and Russia to reach an agreement. Earlier deadlines set by Donald Trump largely passed without significant outcomes, AP reported.

Zelenskyy in Munich

Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Munich, Germany, on Friday, touring the first joint Ukrainian-German drone production company. Germany has been a key supporter of Ukraine throughout the conflict.

He was also scheduled for bilateral and multilateral meetings at the Munich Security Conference, which brings together top global security officials.

Since hostilities began in 2014 and the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, Russia’s larger military has captured roughly 20% of Ukraine. However, its advances on the battlefield have been slow and costly in terms of personnel and equipment, AP reported.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that “the Russians are not winning (the war) as some are thinking.”

“This so-called Russian bear is not there,” he told reporters. “It is basically still the speed of a garden snail, what we are seeing in Ukraine – this is how the Russians are moving inside Ukraine, very slow, 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 ceasefire monitoring. The return of Medinsky, who has pushed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s maximalist conditions for peace, could mark a shift toward political issues in the next round of talks.

Ukraine’s delegation will again be led by Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council chief.

It was not clear which American officials would be in Geneva. In the UAE capital, the Trump administration was represented by envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

War of attrition

The grim war of attrition is continuing while the two sides negotiate.

Overnight from Thursday to Friday, a Russian strike killed three brothers between 8 and 19 years of age in eastern Ukraine, authorities said. Their mother and grandmother survived but sustained 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 reported.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that its air defenses intercepted 58 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions and annexed Crimea overnight.

Of those, 43 drones were shot down in the Volgograd region, where debris injured three people, including a 12-year-old boy, according to the local governor. Ukraine has recently targeted the Volgograd oil refinery in its operations.