Russia-Ukraine meeting in Geneva ends bitterly after two hours of 'difficult' talks
The latest negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have ended after less than two hours of "difficult" talks in Geneva.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has slammed Moscow for attempting to “drag out negotiations that could already be entering their final stage”.
He said “progress has been made" following the discussions on Wednesday, but positions differ because ”negotiations were difficult”.
“From what I heard from our group, the talks were constructive. The military negotiations group has a common understanding on how to monitor the ceasefire and the end of the war if there’s a political will to end it,” Mr Zelenskyy told reporters following the meeting.
Russian, Ukrainian and American officials entered a second round of trilateral negotiations at around 9.30am local time on Wednesday but left just two hours later.
It followed a previous round of “very tense” six-hour talks in Switzerland on Tuesday.
Russia’s top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky told reporters that the two days of negotiations were “difficult but businesslike”.
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He said the next meeting will take place in the "near future."
Rustem Umerov, head of the Ukrainian delegation, said “progress” was made “but no details can be disclosed at this stage”.
Earlier, Mr Umerov posted photos on social media of the three delegations at a horseshoe-shaped table, with the Ukrainian and Russian officials sitting across from each other.
US envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Mr Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, sat at the head of the table in front of US, Russian, Ukrainian and Swiss flags.
President Donald Trump said ahead of the talks that “Ukraine better come to the table, fast”.
A 28-point peace plan drawn up by the United States and Russian negotiators called for Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the Donbas region, including towns that haven't been captured by the Russian army.
Mr Zelenskyy has said this would be unacceptable for the Ukrainian people.
The Ukrainian leader said it was “not fair” for Trump to pressure only Ukraine and not Russia.
“Emotionally, people will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive … me, they will not forgive [the US],” he told Axios.
Ukraine's short-handed army is locked in a war of attrition with Russia's bigger forces along the roughly 750-mile front line. Ukrainian civilians are enduring Russian aerial barrages that repeatedly knock out power and destroy homes.
The future of the almost 20 per cent of Ukrainian land that Russia occupies or still covets is a central question in the talks, as are Kyiv's demands for post-war security guarantees with a US backstop to deter Moscow from invading again.