Missiles fly as 3rd round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks kicks off in Geneva | Russia-Ukraine war News

Russian and Ukrainian officials have launched a third round of United States-brokered peace negotiations in Switzerland days before the bloody Ukraine war hits its four-year mark.

Ukraine’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov said the two days of talks that started on Tuesday in Geneva will address “security and humanitarian issues”.

The Ukrainian side is “working constructively, focused and without excessive expectations”, Umerov posted on social media.

The US is represented by envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who joined the negotiations after helping mediate indirect talks with Iranian officials at a separate venue in the Swiss city earlier in the day.

The Kremlin said ⁠the Russian delegation is led by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin. Discussions will take place behind closed doors without any media present, it added.

Government officials from Germany, France, Britain, and Italy are also reportedly to take part in the talks.

Both sides trade fire

Before the negotiations, Ukraine accused Russia of undermining peace efforts by launching 29 missiles and 396 drones overnight. At least nine people were wounded, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said tens of thousands of residents were left without heating and running water in the southern port city of Odesa.

Russia, meanwhile, claimed to have repelled more than 150 Ukrainian drones, most over southern regions and the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, while officials said an oil depot in southern Russia caught fire.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia planned to bring up “a broader range of issues” during the Geneva talks, including the major issue of territory. About 20 percent of Ukrainian land has been seized by Moscow since 2014.

The commander of the US military – and NATO forces – in Europe, General Alexus Grynkewich, and Secretary of the US Army Dan Driscoll are attending the discussions and will meet their Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, said spokesman Colonel Martin O’Donnell.

‘People are exhausted’

Many Ukrainians, weary from relentless air attacks, “still wonder whether Russia is in fact negotiating in good faith”, said Al Jazeera’s Audrey MacAlpine, reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine.

“People are really exhausted,” said Kyiv resident Alina Yemets. “There have been so many of these meetings, so much talk about a ceasefire. Belief [they will produce] a good result is not very strong.”

Zelenskyy called for Kyiv’s allies to increase pressure on Russia to reach a “real and just” peace deal via tougher sanctions and weapons supplies to Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump has pushed both Moscow and Kyiv to reach ⁠a deal to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945, though Zelenskyy has complained his country is facing more pressure to make concessions.

When asked by reporters what he expects from the Geneva negotiations, Trump singled out Ukraine.

“Well, we have big talks,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Monday. “It’s going to be very easy. I mean, look, so far, Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you.”

Key obstacle

Russia is demanding Ukraine cede the remaining 20 percent of the eastern region of Donetsk that Moscow has failed to capture – something Kyiv refuses to do.

“The central sticking point between all this remains the issue of land – of eastern Ukraine,” said Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid, reporting from Geneva.

Ukraine’s army has put up a strong defence, costing Russia heavy losses during its slow, painstaking advance over the past four years.

Kyiv is “trying to paint any Russian capture of the rest of the Donetsk region as something that is not inevitable, something that will take them many lives and perhaps many years to do”, MacAlpine said.

Ukraine views the idea of making territorial compromises before clear security guarantees to be “a bit of a cart before the horse scenario”, she added.

Geneva was chosen to host the latest round of talks after two earlier sessions in Abu Dhabi, which both sides described as constructive but which failed to produce any major breakthrough.

The discussions come a week before the four-year anniversary on February 24 of Russia’s full-scale invasion of its much smaller neighbour, Ukraine.

Estimates suggest tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions have fled their homes, and many Ukrainian cities, towns and villages have been devastated by the war.

Russia’s recent air strikes on energy infrastructure have left hundreds of thousands ⁠of Ukrainians without heat and electricity during the harsh winter months.