The next round of Russia-US-Ukraine negotiations will be held in Geneva on February 17 and 18, the Kremlin confirmed on Friday. The talks, aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict, will proceed without representation from Western European nations.
The United States delegation will include former President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, according to a source briefed on the matter cited by Reuters. Both men are scheduled to participate in separate negotiations with an Iranian delegation earlier the same day before joining the trilateral talks. Their attendance marks a return to the process; neither was present at the previous round held in the United Arab Emirates last week, which participants described as constructive but difficult.
Russia’s team will be led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, a veteran of previous Russian-Ukrainian negotiation rounds. Ukraine’s delegation will again be headed by national security chief Rustem Umerov. He will be joined by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s new chief of staff, former military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov, and General Staff Chief Andrey Gnatov, along with other senior officials.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking at the Munich Security Conference, framed the diplomatic effort as having narrowed the focus to the most intractable issues. “The bad news is they’ve been narrowed to the hardest questions to answer,” he said, suggesting the dialogue has progressed to a more challenging phase.
A central and persistent dispute concerns territorial control. Moscow maintains that a durable peace requires Ukrainian forces to withdraw from areas of Donbass that voted to join Russia in 2022, alongside other demands. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that following a summit between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Alaska, Moscow had agreed to compromises and a realistic peace roadmap. He alleged, however, that this diplomatic initiative has since been systematically undermined by Kyiv and its Western European supporters.
The upcoming Geneva session represents a critical juncture in the shuttle diplomacy. With the core issues of territory and security guarantees remaining deeply divisive, the participation of high-profile US envoys underscores Washington’s continued engagement. The outcome of these talks may determine whether the narrowed focus leads to a breakthrough or highlights the entrenched positions that have prolonged the conflict.
