{"id":11763,"date":"2026-02-18T14:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T14:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/11763\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T14:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T14:31:14","slug":"ukraine-peace-talks-cut-short-in-geneva-after-zelensky-says-russia-stalling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/11763\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine peace talks cut short in Geneva after Zelensky says Russia stalling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Volodymyr Zelensky gives a statement after receiving the 2026 Ewald von Kleist award in the name of the Ukrainian people, at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.MICHAELA STACHE\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Geneva ended abruptly on Wednesday after only two hours, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> saying that the discussions had been \u201cdifficult\u201d and accusing Russia of deliberately seeking to delay progress toward a deal to end the four-year-old war<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The U.S.-mediated peace talks<\/a> in Switzerland have been taking place as U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> has twice in recent days suggested it was up to Ukraine and Zelensky to take steps to ensure the talks were successful. <\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday\u2019s meetings were indeed difficult, and we can state that Russia is trying to drag out negotiations that could already have reached the final stage,\u201d Zelensky wrote on X on Wednesday, following media reports that the first day of talks had been tense. Minutes after Zelensky\u2019s comments, Russia\u2019s state news agency RIA reported that the talks had ended. <\/p>\n

Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky told reporters in the lobby of the hotel where talks took place in Geneva that further negotiations would be held soon, without specifying a date. A Ukrainian official confirmed that the talks in Geneva had ended, saying that they had lasted \u201caround two hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Russia’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, leaves after two hours of U.S.-mediated negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday.HAROLD CUNNINGHAM\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In an interview with U.S. website Axios published on Tuesday, Zelensky was quoted as saying that it was \u201cnot fair\u201d Trump kept publicly calling on Ukraine, not Russia, to make concessions in negotiating terms for a peace plan.<\/p>\n

Zelensky also said any plan requiring Ukraine to give up territory that Russia had not captured in the eastern Donbas region would be rejected by Ukrainians if put to a referendum. \u201cI hope it is just his tactics and not the decision,\u201d Axios quoted Zelensky as saying in the interview.<\/p>\n

Trump had told reporters on Monday that \u201cUkraine better come to the table fast. That\u2019s all I\u2019m telling you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russian source called talks \u2018very tense\u2019<\/p>\n

The talks came just days before the fourth anniversary of Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion of its much smaller neighbour. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, millions have fled their homes, and many Ukrainian cities, towns and villages have been devastated by the conflict.<\/p>\n

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians. The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, said Tuesday\u2019s talks had focused on \u201cpractical issues and the mechanics of possible decisions,\u201d without providing details.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, reads a statement after the talks concluded.ELODIE LE MAOU\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

However, Russian news agencies quoted a source as saying that the Tuesday talks were \u201cvery tense\u201d and lasted six hours in different bilateral and trilateral formats.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian government bonds fell as much as 1.9 cents on the dollar in morning trade in Europe on reports of stalled progress at the talks.<\/p>\n

Before the talks began, Umerov had played down hopes for a significant step forward in Geneva, saying the Ukrainian delegation was working \u201cwithout excessive expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Geneva meeting follows two rounds of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi that concluded without a major breakthrough as the two sides remained far apart on key issues such as the control of territory in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Russia occupies about 20 per cent of Ukraine\u2019s national territory, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region seized before the 2022 full-scale invasion. Its recent air strikes on energy infrastructure have left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without heating and power during a harsh winter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Volodymyr Zelensky gives a statement after receiving the 2026 Ewald von Kleist award…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1064,1051,1065,1042,1040,1066,563,1039,1057,1058,1054,1041,1038,39,1062,457,1056,1049,65,1077,1043,1044,70,1052,1053,899,1067,1047,1072,1073,1075,1070,1074,1068,1071,1045,1060,1061,69,1059,1069,1050,789,1063,1055,1048,1046,1076],"class_list":{"0":"post-11763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-geneva","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-geneva","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-northwest-territories","39":"tag-nova-scotia","40":"tag-nunavut","41":"tag-ontario","42":"tag-pei","43":"tag-photos","44":"tag-political-news","45":"tag-political-opinion","46":"tag-politics","47":"tag-politics-news","48":"tag-quebec","49":"tag-sports-news","50":"tag-technology","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11763","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=11763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}