He said more negotiations would be held soon, though he did not specify a time or place.<\/p>\n
\t\tnews \t\t\t\tUkraine War Is \u201cKilling Russia\u201d \u2013 Rutte to MT The head of Ukraine\u2019s national security and defense council, Rustem Umerov, who led the Ukrainian delegation in Geneva, said\u00a0\u201cthere is progress,\u00a0but no details can be disclosed at this stage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Echoing that statement,\u00a0U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff wrote <\/a>on X that \u201cmeaningful progress\u201d had been made this week and that\u00a0\u201cboth\u00a0parties agreed to update their respective leaders and continue working toward a deal.\u201d <\/p>\n Witkoff did not elaborate on what agreements, if any, Ukraine and Russia had reached in Geneva, in contrast to the conclusion of the previous round of talks in Abu Dhabi, where delegates\u00a0agreed to a prisoner exchange.<\/p>\n Prospects for a peace deal appeared dim even before this week\u2019s meeting began, as the Kremlin has given no indication it plans to abandon its maximalist demands, including Ukraine surrendering more of its territory to Russian forces.<\/p>\n At the same time, President Vladimir Putin\u2019s decision to appoint Medinsky, an ultra-conservative known for his hardline views, as the head of the Russian delegation in Geneva raised concerns that negotiations may stall after some progress had previously been made in talks between top military officials from Ukraine and Russia.<\/p>\n In the Russian delegation, Medinsky was\u00a0joined by the head of Russia\u2019s GRU military intelligence agency, Admiral Igor Kostyukov, who served as Moscow\u2019s chief representative at the talks in Abu Dhabi. <\/p>\n Nearly two dozen other officials made up Russia\u2019s delegation. Among them was Kremlin envoy and Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev, who has been\u00a0meeting<\/a> with Trump administration officials in separate discussions about U.S.-Russian economic relations.<\/p>\n Also in attendance was Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who joined Witkoff. Both men have become fixtures in the White House\u2019s diplomatic efforts to end the war. In Geneva, they held parallel talks with Iranian officials over Tehran\u2019s nuclear program.<\/p>\n U.S. President Donald Trump has been pushing hard for an end to the war in Ukraine since he took office over a year ago. Before returning to the White House, he had promised to broker an end to the conflict by day one of his presidency.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re big talks. It\u2019s going to be very easy,\u201d Trump said<\/a>\u00a0earlier this week ahead of the negotiations\u00a0in Switzerland. \u201cUkraine better come to the table, fast.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\topinion \t\t\t\tThe U.S. and Russian Militaries Are Talking Again. Will it Make a Difference? Zelensky told<\/a> Axios on Tuesday that Witkoff and Kushner said they believe Russia \u201cgenuinely wants to end the war.\u201d However, he warned them against pressuring Ukraine to accept a peace agreement that its citizens would view as an\u00a0\u201cunsuccessful story.\u201d<\/p>\n Moscow continues to insist that Ukraine hand over the eastern Donbas region despite Russian forces not controlling all of the territory. Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea, even as he comes under increasing pressure from Trump to make a quick deal.<\/p>\n Putin has warned that Russia will take more territory by force if Ukraine refuses a compromise. He has also indicated that, beyond territorial questions, he wants a change of government in Kyiv, calling<\/a> Zelensky\u00a0\u201cillegitimate\u201d and a\u00a0\u201cneo-Nazi.\u201d<\/p>\n Ukraine, meanwhile, is pushing the United States and its European allies to provide it with security guarantees as part of a peace agreement since it fears Russia may launch a future invasion if there is no post-war military deterrence in place.<\/p>\n Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters this week that Russian delegates in Switzerland plan to focus on the \u201cmain issues\u201d concerning \u201cterritories and everything else related to the demands we have put forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Zelensky told Axios that he thinks the best way to achieve a breakthrough on the question of territory is for a face-to-face meeting with Putin. He said his team would propose that idea during the talks in Geneva this week.<\/p>\n The Ukrainian president also said he would be\u00a0prepared to discuss a troop withdrawal from parts of the Donbas region, but called on Putin to issue a similar order to his own forces at an equal distance to create the kind of demilitarized\u00a0\u201cfree economic zone\u201d that the Trump administration is proposing.<\/p>\n Giving Russia more territory, Zelensky warned, would never be accepted by Ukrainians if put to a vote in a referendum. \u201cEmotionally, people will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive… me, they will not forgive [the U.S.],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, sources told Axios that\u00a0negotiations in the political group in Geneva on Tuesday were\u00a0\u201cstuck\u201d due to positions presented by Medinsky, who is known to repeat many of the same maximalist views that Putin has expressed since launching the full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n A Message from The Moscow Times:<\/p>\n Dear readers,<\/p>\n We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has designated The Moscow Times as an “undesirable” organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a “foreign agent.”<\/p>\n These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. 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