US, Ukraine conclude talks in Geneva as Russia says 'no deadlines' to end war

GENEVA, February 27 ------ US and Ukrainian officials concluded talks in Geneva to discuss advancing efforts to end Russia's four-year invasion of Ukraine, just as Moscow signaled it was in no hurry to sign a deal.

An AFP reporter saw the US delegation leaving Geneva's Hotel des Bergues, the venue of the talks, and the Swiss agency ATS-Keystone published a photo of the Ukrainian lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, leaving the hotel.

US leader Donald Trump is pushing for an end to Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II, but has so far failed to broker any deal between Moscow and Kyiv. Previous rounds of US-led negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Geneva and Abu Dhabi have failed to yield a compromise, including on the key sticking point of territory.

Russia, which has signaled it will not budge on its demands for full control of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, said on Thursday it was too early to forecast when a deal would take place. "Have you heard anything from us about deadlines? We have no deadlines, we have tasks. We are getting them done," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state media.

Kyiv says the only way of breaking the deadlock is a leaders' meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, and that it aims to lay the ground for such a summit during talks. "In Geneva, we continue our work within the framework of the negotiation process. A bilateral meeting with the American delegation has begun - with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner," Ukrainian negotiator Umerov said earlier. Ukraine aims to "synchronize positions" with the US ahead of fresh trilateral talks in March, he added.

Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev was present at the talks venue in Geneva on Thursday, though there was no indication he met with the Ukrainian side, according to Russian state media. Dmitriev declined to comment when he was met by the press after leaving the negotiations, according to a video circulated in pro-Kremlin outlets.

Source: channelnewsasia.com