Ukraine\u2019s lead negotiator says Kyiv will work \u2018constructively\u2019 but \u2018without excessive expectations\u2019.<\/p>\n
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Published On 17 Feb 202617 Feb 2026<\/p>\n
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Russian and Ukrainian officials launched a third round of United States-brokered peace negotiations in Switzerland, days before the Ukraine war hits its four-year mark.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov said the two days of talks that started on Tuesday will include \u201csecurity and humanitarian issues\u201d.<\/p>\n
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The Ukrainian side is \u201cworking constructively, focused and without excessive expectations\u201d, Umerov posted on social media.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the talks, Russia carried out heavy air strikes overnight across swathes of Ukraine, inflicting severe damage to the power network in the southern port city of Odesa, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said left tens of thousands of people without heat and water.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy called for Kyiv\u2019s allies to increase pressure on Russia to reach a \u201creal and just\u201d peace deal via tougher sanctions and weapons supplies to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump has pushed both Moscow and Kyiv to reach \u2060a deal to end Europe\u2019s biggest war since 1945, though Zelenskyy has complained his country is facing more pressure to make concessions.<\/p>\n
When asked by reporters what he expects from the Geneva negotiations, Trump singled out Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell we have big talks,\u201d Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be very easy. I mean, look, so far Ukraine better come to the table fast. That\u2019s all I\u2019m telling you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russia is demanding Ukraine cede the remaining 20 percent of the eastern region of Donetsk that Moscow has failed to capture \u2013 something Kyiv refuses to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time, the idea is to discuss a broader range of issues, including, in fact, the main ones. The main issues concern both the territories and everything else related to the demands we have put forward,\u201d Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s lead negotiator says Kyiv will work \u2018constructively\u2019 but \u2018without excessive expectations\u2019. Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a02 mins info…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[197,65,1202,136,4126,135,74,7199],"class_list":{"0":"post-10634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-geneva","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-geneva","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-russia","12":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","13":"tag-ukraine","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-us-canada"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}