'Difficult' Ukraine Peace Talks End After Zelenskyy Accuses Russia Of Stalling

The talks came just days before the fourth anniversary of Russia's 2022 invasion of its much smaller neighbor.

GENEVA, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Geneva ended on Wednesday after only two hours, with President Volodymyr Zelensyiy describing them as “difficult” and accusing Russia of deliberately delaying progress toward a deal to end the four-year-old war.

The two days of U.S.-mediated peace talks in Switzerland took place as U.S. President Donald Trump has twice in recent days suggested it was up to Ukraine and Zelenskyy to ensure the talks were successful.

“We can see that progress has been made, but for now, positions differ because the negotiations were difficult,” Zelenskyy told reporters in a WhatsApp chat shortly after talks concluded.

Rustem Umerov, the head of Kyiv’s negotiating team, said separately that the second day had been “intensive and substantive”. Both sides were working toward decisions that can be sent to their presidents, he said.

Russia’s chief negotiator, former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky, told reporters that further negotiations would be held soon, without specifying a date. Earlier on Wednesday, Zelenskyy had accused Russia of “trying to drag out negotiations that could already have reached the final stage”.