Talks on Tuesday in Geneva between Ukrainians and Russians under American mediation with a view to finding a solution to four years of fighting in Ukraine were "very tense" but will continue on Wednesday, said a source close to the Russian delegation.

Published on: 02/17/2026 - 04:45 Modified on: 02/17/2026 - 22:08

The exchanges "were very tense. They lasted six hours. They are now over. It was agreed to resume [them] tomorrow," the Russian source explained to journalists on condition of anonymity.

The talks, Tuesday February 17 in Geneva between Ukrainians and Russians under American mediation with a view to finding a solution to four years of fighting in Ukraine, will however continue on Wednesday, added a source close to the Russian delegation.

The three delegations met behind closed doors at the InterContinental Hotel, while "advisers" from four European countries, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy, were also present in Geneva.

“Meetings between the advisors (...) and the Ukrainian and American delegations are planned for later today on the sidelines of the negotiations,” said an Italian government source in this regard.

Concerning the discussions between Russian, Ukrainian and American representatives, "security and humanitarian issues are on the agenda", underlined one of the Ukrainian negotiators, former Defense Minister Roustem Umerov, saying they were working in a "constructive manner" and "without excessive expectations".

Watch today's livestream Ukraine live: talks between Russians and Ukrainians will continue on Wednesday

Massive Strikes

The parties are working on the basis of the American plan unveiled several months ago, which notably provides for territorial concessions from Ukraine in exchange for Western security guarantees.

However, negotiations are stuck on the fate of Donbass, the large industrial basin in eastern Ukraine: Moscow is demanding that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the areas they still control in the Donetsk region, which kyiv refuses.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned that "the questions" remaining to be resolved were "vast" and that "no one will venture to predict" the outcome of the discussions.

Hours before the talks began in Geneva, Russia again massively bombed Ukraine, launching 396 drones and 29 missiles during the night, of which 367 and 25 were intercepted, respectively, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

“It was a combined strike, deliberately calculated to cause as much damage as possible to our energy sector,” denounced President Volodymyr Zelensky, citing Russia’s “contempt for peace efforts”.

According to him, twelve regions were targeted in this attack which left nine injured and left "tens of thousands of people" without water or heating in the middle of winter in Odessa, the major port in southern Ukraine.

To put pressure on kyiv, against the backdrop of negotiations, Russia has for weeks been increasing devastating strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure.

A Russian drone also caused the death of three employees of a power plant in Sloviansk, in eastern Ukraine, on Tuesday morning, authorities announced.

The Russian Defense Ministry for its part claimed to have intercepted more than 150 Ukrainian drones during the night, these having mainly targeted the Black Sea region, Crimea and the Sea of ​​Azov.

Also read: Why Ukraine decided to dissolve its International Legions

“Thousands” of captive children

The Geneva talks follow two recent sessions of talks in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, which failed to produce much progress.

Donald Trump is pushing for a diplomatic outcome to the conflict triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“Ukraine would do better to come to the discussion table, and quickly,” the American president repeated Monday evening, after calling on his Ukrainian counterpart last week to “get moving,” assuring that Russia wanted to “conclude an agreement.”

Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, has repeatedly questioned the Kremlin's desire to negotiate. He criticized the Americans for “returning too often to the question of concessions” requested from kyiv.

On Saturday, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the Ukrainian head of state once again ruled out, at this stage, ceding territories to Russia, which occupied 19.5% of Ukrainian territory in mid-February.

According to political scientist Tatiana Stanovaïa, the choice of a Kremlin advisor, the nationalist historian Vladimir Medinski, to lead the Russian delegation to Geneva, illustrates the "return of political demands to the center of discussions".

Russia had previously called for a reduction in the size of the Ukrainian army and a commitment from Ukraine not to enter NATO.

Speaking on the fate of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that 2,000 of them had been recovered by kyiv since the start of the war, but that "thousands" of others remained captive on Russian soil and in the occupied territories.

With AFP

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