'Ukraine better come to the table fast': Trump urges as trilateral talks begin in Geneva amid ongoing strikes

Ukraine-Russia talks proceed amid low expectations

Delegations from Moscow and Kyiv convened in Geneva on Tuesday for a fresh round of US-mediated peace talks, coming just a week ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Despite the high-profile meeting, hopes for a breakthrough were limited, with neither side appearing willing to compromise on key territorial issues or post-war security guarantees, even as the United States has set a June deadline for a potential settlement.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, shared images on social media showing the three delegations seated around a horseshoe-shaped table, with Ukrainian and Russian officials facing each other. US President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner were positioned at the head of the table, flanked by US, Russian, Ukrainian, and Swiss flags.

“The agenda includes security and humanitarian issues,” Umerov said, adding that Ukrainians will work “without excessive expectations.”

Sources familiar with the talks told The Associated Press that discussions over Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory were expected to be particularly difficult. Moscow continues to press Ukraine to cede control of the eastern Donbas region.

Also in Geneva will be American, Russian and Ukrainian military chiefs, who will discuss how ceasefire monitoring might work after any peace deal, and what's needed to implement it, the person said.

During previous talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, military leaders looked at how a demilitarized zone could be arranged and how everyone's militaries could talk to one another, the person added.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov cautioned against expecting developments on the first day of talks as they were set to continue on Wednesday. Moscow has provided few details of previous talks.

Ukraine’s short-handed army is locked in a war of attrition with Russia’s bigger forces along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (750-mile) front line. Ukrainian civilians are enduring Russian aerial barrages that repeatedly knock out power and destroy homes.

The future of the almost 20% of Ukrainian land that Russia occupies or still covets is a central question in the talks, as are Kyiv’s demands for postwar security guarantees with a U.S. backstop to deter Moscow from invading again.

“Ukraine better come to the table fast,” he told reporters late Monday as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida.

It wasn’t immediately clear what Trump was referring to in his comment about Ukraine, which has committed to and taken part in negotiations in the hope of ending Russia’s devastating onslaught.

The Russian delegation is headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adviser Vladimir Medinsky, who headed Moscow’s team of negotiators in the first direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in March 2022 and has forcefully pushed Putin’s war goals. Medinsky has written several history books that claim to expose Western plots against Russia and berate Ukraine.

The commander of the U.S. military — and NATO forces — in Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, and Secretary of the U.S. Army Dan Driscoll will attend the meeting in Geneva on behalf of the U.S. military and meet with their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, said Col. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for the U.S. commander.

Overnight, Russia used almost 400 long-range drones and 29 missiles of various types to strike 12 regions of Ukraine, injuring nine people, including children, according to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy said tens of thousands of residents were left without heating and running water in the southern port city of Odesa. He said Moscow should be “held accountable” for the relentless attacks, which he said undermine the U.S. push for peace.

“The more this evil comes from Russia, the harder it will be for everyone to reach any agreements with them. Partners must understand this. First and foremost, this concerns the United States,” the Ukrainian leader said on social media late Monday.

“We agreed to all realistic proposals from the United States, starting with the proposal for an unconditional and long-term ceasefire,” Zelenskyy noted.

The talks in Geneva took place as U.S. officials also held indirect talks with Iran in the Swiss city.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU, used long-range drones to strike an oil terminal in southern Russia and a major chemical plant deep inside the country, a Ukrainian security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly told the AP.

Drones targeted the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal, one of the biggest ports of its type on the Black Sea, in Russia’s Krasnodar region for the second time this month, starting a fire, the official said.

Drones also hit the Metafrax Chemicals plan, which manufactures chemical components used in explosives and other military materials, in Russia’s Perm region, more than 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) from the Ukrainian border, according to the official.

(With inputs from AP)