Fresh round of Russia, Ukraine peace talks in Geneva yields no breakthrough

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said some movement had been made on military issues, including how a potential ceasefire might be monitored, but major political disagreements remained — particularly over territory occupied by Russia.

Ukraine and Russia held a new round of US-brokered peace talks in Geneva on Wednesday, but the negotiations ended without any breakthrough. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the talks, which lasted about two hours, "difficult" and accused Moscow of stalling progress.

"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 the talks concluded.

Zelenskyy again alleged that Moscow was intentionally slowing the process while continuing military pressure on Ukraine.

Earlier in the day, he accused Russia of "trying to drag out negotiations that could already have reached the final stage". Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said the Kremlin negotiates in bad faith while maintaining battlefield offensives and strikes on infrastructure.

Rustem Umerov, who heads Ukraine’s negotiating team, said the second day of talks had been "intensive and substantive", adding that both sides were working toward decisions that could be presented to their presidents.

Russia’s chief negotiator, presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky, said the talks "were difficult but businesslike" and indicated that another round would be held soon, without giving a date. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said it was "too early" to discuss outcomes.