The negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Geneva ended abruptly after two hours on the second day without any announced breakthrough. The negotiations were termed difficult by both sides, according to Reuters.
The negotiations brought together Ukrainian officials led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Russian officials led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, and US mediators Steve Witkoff (Trump’s special envoy) and Jared Kushner (Trump’s son-in-law).
Medinsky, who led the Russian side in negotiations with Ukraine, termed them “difficult but business-like” and stated that they would soon hold another meeting without specifying the date of the next meeting, according to TASS.
Ukraine has rejected Russia’s demand that Kyiv withdraw from parts of the eastern Donbas region that remain under Ukrainian control, a condition Reuters reported remains a central sticking point.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the first day of negotiations lasted about six hours and accused Moscow of deliberately slowing progress. “We can state that Russia is trying to drag out negotiations,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated in his post on social media X.
After the abrupt end of the negotiations on the second day, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that he sensed movement in the negotiations but that they still had their differences since the negotiations were difficult, Reuters reported.
The talks were termed by Umerov as “intensive and substantive” with political and military aspects, including security parameters and any decision implementation, in a post on X. Medinsky reiterated this view.
The latest Geneva round comes as Washington has tried to reshape how it supports the process. In May 2025, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce announced that the United States planned to “change the methodology” of its engagement with the process by no longer acting as a mediator to call meetings without any proposals from the two parties. Instead, she stated that Ukraine and Russia need to make specific proposals regarding ways to bring an end to the war.
Around the same period, the State Department certified a proposed license for “$50 million or more” in defense exports to Ukraine, a step reported as the administration’s first such approval after an early-term review of Ukraine-related aid. Meanwhile, an agreement regarding minerals between Ukraine and the United States was signed on April 30, 2025.
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