Russia And Ukraine Resume Talks In Geneva

After media reports of "political gridlock".

A new round of talks between the delegations of Russia, the United States and Ukraine has begun in Geneva, German Wave reported Wednesday, February 18.

The Russian delegation, as on February 17, is headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky. It also includes Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin and the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Igor Kostyukov.

The Kiev delegation - in addition to the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Rustem Umerov - includes the head of Vladimir Zelensky's office Kirill Budanov, deputy Sergey Kislitsa, deputy chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate Vadym Skibitsky, as well as the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andrey Gnatov and the head of the faction of the ruling Servant of the People party David Arahamiya.

Media: The political part of the talks "has reached a deadlock"

The political part of the February 17 peace talks on the war in Ukraine "has reached a deadlock," a journalist for the US portal Axios Barak Ravid reported, citing two sources. According to them, the reason for the failure in this direction was the positions presented by Medinsky. Ravid's interlocutors did not give details about Medinsky's statements.

A source in the Russian negotiating team told Interfax news agency that the talks "were very tense." At the same time, he said, the dialog was conducted in both trilateral and bilateral formats.

At the same time, U.S. Presidential Special Envoy Steven Whitkoff, who also attended the February 17 meeting, said at the end of the meeting that "significant progress" had been made. "Both sides agreed to inform their leaders and continue to work on concluding an agreement," he wrote on his social media page X.

Zelensky instructed to "raise the issue" of meeting with Putin in Geneva

In an interview with Axios following the first day of talks in Geneva, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Kiev and Washington had agreed to put any peace agreement to a referendum in Ukraine. At the same time, the country's citizens, according to him, will reject the agreement if it provides for the withdrawal of only AFU units from Donbas without a similar withdrawal of Russia's army. They will also not support the transfer of the entire region, about 10% of whose territories are still controlled by Ukraine, to Russia.

In this regard, the Ukrainian president called a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin the best way to achieve a breakthrough in resolving the territorial issue. Therefore, according to Zelensky, he instructed his negotiating team to raise the issue of a meeting between the two leaders in Geneva.

The press secretary of the Russian leader Dmitry Peskov earlier said that a meeting between Putin and Zelensky was possible only in Moscow. In response, the Ukrainian leader indicated that he "cannot come to Moscow for talks" but was ready to meet Putin in any country except Russia and Belarus.

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