Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s chief negotiator, told the media that the talks are “tough but businesslike”. Photo / Getty Images
Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia have ended in acrimony after less than two hours on the second day of negotiations.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was not present in Geneva, Switzerland, said the wrangling had done little to address differences over the fate of Ukrainian-held territory in the east.
But Ukrainian officials on the ground at the InterContinental hotel told The Daily Telegraph that both sides were closing in on technical agreements for implementing a ceasefire should a deal be reached at a political level.
“The negotiations were not easy,” the Ukrainian president told journalists from Kyiv.
Vladimir Medinsky, the Kremlin aide leading the Russian delegation in Geneva, told state media the talks had been “tough but businesslike.”
The talks in Geneva were part of two days of shuttle diplomacy at the InterContinental, where the US is attempting to stop the war in Ukraine and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
There were few signs of any meaningful breakthroughs as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches its fourth anniversary next week.
During the talks at the five-star hotel, which has hosted major diplomatic moments in the past, the Russian delegation refused to drop hardline demands for Kyiv to surrender the eastern Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Before the negotiations, Ukrainian officials were concerned that the participation of Medinsky, a revisionist nationalist historian, in the talks could be the main blockage to a potential ceasefire.
Kyiv interpreted his inclusion at the top of the delegation as an attempt to prevent any compromises from Russia.
This week, after more than six hours of talks on the first day, Zelenskyy accused Moscow of attempting to “drag out negotiations that could already be entering their final stage” in a veiled reference to Russia’s latest chief negotiator.
The Ukrainian President said, as was the case with Vladimir Putin, that Medinsky liked to philosophise about the “historical roots of the war”.
He added: “We don’t have time for all this s***. So we have to decide, and have to finish the war.”
The Russian delegation claimed Zelenskyy’s complaints were a sign he was not yet ready to settle the long-running conflict.
While there was no breakthrough on the issue of territory, one Ukrainian negotiator told the Telegraph that progress had been made on the technical steps of implementing a ceasefire, such as “disengagement, monitoring and verification” of any truce.
“Part of the discussion in the military-to-military format is very positive, very constructive,” the source added.
Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s chief negotiator in the talks, told reporters: “The discussions were intensive and substantive.”
“Both political and military tracks were engaged, security parameters and mechanisms for implementing possible decisions were discussed. A number of issues were clarified, while others remain under additional co-ordination.”
Despite suggestions of progress, a Ukrainian official familiar with the negotiations said the lack of a political decision over the issue of territory made the other talks largely meaningless.
The source said: “There are so many things that need to be decided before a political decision is taken. You can’t make a political decision and then someone has to implement it, right?
“If the military-to-military talks do not reach necessary decisions beforehand, you have to imagine the alternative – the political decision is taken and then they have to tell the militaries to work very hard for who knows how long.”
The source denied there were any splits in the Ukrainian delegation over whether to push for a hasty peace agreement, saying: “[Mr Zelensky] would never send a split delegation.”
After the talks broke up in the InterContinental, both Russian and Ukrainian officials returned to the hotel, suggesting further private wrangling between the two parties.
Medinsky was seen returning wearing casual clothes, as was Serhii Kyslytsia, who serves as Zelensky’s deputy chief of staff. It was not clear whether they had met.
A White House source told the Telegraph that they would try to organise another meeting in Geneva between the warring parties soon.
US President Donald Trump has set a deadline for the war to end by June and urged Ukraine to “come to the table, fast”, but several rounds of peace talks have failed to broker an agreement between Moscow and Kyiv on the issue of territory.
In an interview with Axios, published after the first day of talks broke up, Zelenskyy said it was “not fair” that Trump had repeatedly called on Ukraine, rather than Russia, to make concessions for peace.
He added that the Ukrainian population would reject a peace deal that involved Ukraine unilaterally withdrawing from the eastern Donbas region and turning it over to Russia.
Zelenskyy previously said he would discuss a troop withdrawal as long as Moscow was required to pull its troops back an equivalent distance and Kyiv would receive security guarantees from the US and Europe.
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