Local residents inspect damaged cars at the site of a Russian attack in Odesa on February 13, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Six people died in Russian strikes across Ukraine overnight that targeted the southern port city of Odesa and energy infrastructure, officials announced on February 13, 2026. Moscow has stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure in recent weeks despite pressure by the United States to reach a peace deal with Kyiv. Russia launched one missile and 154 drones overnight, the Ukrainian air force said, warning that some unmanned aerial vehicles were still in Ukrainian airspace as of the morning of February 13, 2026. (Photo by Oleksandr GIMANOV / AFP)
Russia and Ukraine will hold US-brokered talks on February 17-18 in Geneva, both countries said Friday, announcing the next leg in fraught negotiations seeking to end the four-year war.
US President Donald Trump is pushing to end the conflict, unleashed when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but two previous rounds of US-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi have not yielded any signs of a breakthrough.
Divisions remain over key territorial demands
Both sides said publicly the discussions were productive, but Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on the key issue of territory.
“The next round of talks on the Ukrainian settlement will be held in the same trilateral Russia-US-Ukraine format, on February 17-18 in Geneva,” Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
An aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed to journalists that its delegation was preparing for the negotiations next week.
Moscow insists on sweeping concessions
Moscow has stuck to its demands for sweeping territorial and political concessions from Ukraine — rejected by Kyiv as tantamount to capitulation.
ALSO READ: Ramaphosa and Putin discuss repatriation of South Africans recruited to fight in Ukraine
Russia is pushing for Ukraine to pull out of the eastern Donetsk region — around one-fifth of which Kyiv’s forces still control.
Ukraine has rejected a unilateral pull-back and wants robust Western security guarantees to deter Russia from re-launching its offensive following any ceasefire.
New faces lead delegations to Geneva
Peskov said Moscow’s delegation to Geneva will be headed by Vladimir Medinsky, a hawkish ex-culture minister who led previous failed talks in Turkey, in a switch from the senior military officials who led two previous rounds in Abu Dhabi.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the four-year conflict, Europe’s deadliest since World War II.
Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukrainian land — including the Crimean peninsula it seized in 2014 and areas that Moscow-backed separatists had taken prior to the 2022 invasion.
NOW READ: Germany arrests 5 for illegal exports to Russia, including to arms companies
About the Author
