European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, center, and Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, 2nd left, India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, left, and Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal Bin Farhan Al-Saud, right, attend the Informal meeting of EU Foreign Ministers, in the port city of Limassol, Cyprus on May 28, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukraine and Russia made some progress at U.S.-mediated talks in Geneva but did not find a compromise on the key issue of territory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday (February 18, 2026).

The United States has been pushing for an end to the nearly four-year war, which has killed tens of thousands and destroyed much of eastern and southern Ukraine, but Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over who gets what land in a post-war settlement.

Russia is pushing for full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region as part of any deal, and has threatened to take it by force if Kyiv does not cave at the negotiating table.

But Ukraine has rejected this demand, which is politically and militarily fraught, and signalled it will not sign a deal without security guarantees that deter Russia from invading again.

“We can see that some groundwork has been done, but for now the positions differ, because the negotiations were not easy,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in a message to journalists, including from AFP, after the talks had finished.

The two sides agreed on “almost all issues” related to a ceasefire monitoring mechanism which will involve the United States, Mr. Zelenskyy said.

But sensitive issues related to the fate of occupied territory in Ukraine’s east and the future status of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant remained unresolved, Mr. Zelenskyy added.

The head of Russia’s delegation said the talks were “difficult, but business-like” and that further negotiations were planned for the future.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The ensuing conflict has resulted in a tidal wave of destruction that has left entire cities in ruins, tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians dead and forced millions of people to flee their homes.

Deadlock

For the Geneva talks, the Kremlin reinstated nationalist hawk and former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky as its lead negotiator.

Ukrainian national security secretary Rustem Umerov led Kyiv’s side.

Mr. Umerov said the talks were “intensive and substantive”, in a brief statement to reporters after.

He said the next step was to try to reach a level of consensus to “submit the developed decisions for consideration by the presidents”.

Donald Trump put pressure on Ukraine on Monday (February 16) to make a deal, saying they “better come to the table, fast”.

But Mr. Zelenskyy told Axios on Tuesday (February 17) it was “not fair” that Ukraine – and not Russia – was facing more pressure, adding that lasting peace would not be achieved if “victory” was just handed to Moscow.

“I hope it is just his tactics and not the decision,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukraine – including the Crimean Peninsula it seized in 2014 – and areas that Moscow-backed separatists had taken prior to the 2022 invasion.

Ukraine says handing Russia more territory will effectively “reward” Russia for invading and embolden it to attack again.

Russian drone and artillery attacks overnight and late on Tuesday (February 17) wounded at least one person and caused damage to buildings, according to Ukrainian regional authorities.

Mr. Zelenskyy said officials from Britain, France, Germany and Italy were also in Geneva for talks on the sidelines with the Ukrainians, as he said European participation was “indispensable” if any final agreement is to be sustainable.

Russia has been slowly seizing territory across the sprawling front line for months, claiming control of villages in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and northern Sumy region on Wednesday (February 18).

But its wartime economic worries are mounting, with growth stagnating and a ballooning budget deficit as sanction-hit oil revenues drop to a five-year low.

Published – February 18, 2026 05:40 pm IST

Negotiators from Russia, Ukraine and the United States met on Friday (January 23, 2026) in Abu Dhabi for the first direct negotiations on a plan being pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the almost four-year-long war.

The U.S. initially drafted a plan to end the conflict that was heavily criticised in Kyiv and western Europe for being too close to Russia’s line, while later proposals were criticised by Moscow for floating the idea of European peacekeepers.

Ahead of Friday’s (January 23) talks, which are set to continue on Saturday (January 24), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said territory remained the key issue — with Moscow having said it is not dropping its demand that Kyiv pull out of its eastern Donbas region.

After the first day of talks, Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov posted on social media that the meeting had focused “on the parameters for ending Russia’s war and the further logic of the negotiation process”, adding that meetings were scheduled for Saturday (January 24).

The UAE Foreign Ministry said in an earlier statement the talks were scheduled to last two days and were “part of ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and identify political solutions to the crisis”.

Mr. Trump met Mr. Zelenskyy at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday (January 22) and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff later held talks with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.

Donbas dispute

The Emirates meeting took place as thousands of people in Kyiv were without heating in sub-zero temperatures due to Russian strikes.

The European Union, which has sent hundreds of generators, accused Moscow of “deliberately depriving civilians of heat”.

Kyiv said Russian strikes had killed three people on Friday in the Kharkiv region and four people — including a father and his five-year-old son — overnight in the east.

While diplomacy to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II has gained pace, Moscow and Kyiv appear deadlocked over the issue of territory.

Hours after Mr. Putin met Mr. Witkoff — and Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — in Moscow, the Kremlin said its maximalist demand that Kyiv withdraw from the eastern Donbas region still stood.

“Russia’s position is well known on the fact that Ukraine, Ukrainian armed forces, have to leave the territory of the Donbas,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“This is a very important condition,” he added.

Kyiv, which still controls around 20% of the eastern region, has rejected such terms.

‘God willing’

Both sides say the fate of territory in Ukraine’s east is one of the main outstanding issues in the search for a settlement to a war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and decimated eastern Ukraine.

“The Donbas is a key issue,” Mr. Zelenskyy — who said he and Mr. Trump had agreed on post-war security guarantees in Davos — told reporters on Friday (January 23), ahead of the talks.

Later in a post online, he added: “It is necessary that not only Ukraine has the desire to end the war and achieve full security, but that a similar desire somehow emerges in Russia as well.”

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are last known to have met face-to-face in Istanbul last summer, in talks that ended only in deals to exchange captured soldiers.

The Abu Dhabi meeting is the first time they have faced each other to talk about the Trump administration’s plan.

Mr. Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to get full control of eastern Ukraine by force if talks fail.

After the Russia-U.S. talks in the Kremlin, Putin aide Yuri Ushakov insisted Moscow was “genuinely interested in resolving” the war diplomatically.

But he added: “Until that happens, Russia will continue to achieve its objectives… on the battlefield.”

Mr. Trump has in the past pressured Ukraine to agree to terms that Kyiv sees as capitulation.

Mr. Trump repeated on Wednesday (January 21) his belief that Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy were close to a deal.

“I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done. And if they don’t, they’re stupid — that goes for both of them,” he said.

Published – January 24, 2026 04:25 am IST

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, greet U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff, centre left, Jared Kushner, second right, and Josh Gruenbaum, the head of the Federal Acquisition Service at the General Services Administration, at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin, in Moscow on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with U.S. President Donald Trump during a meeting with a Ukrainian delegation led by Zelenskiy, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., on December 28, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, senior Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz meet with U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), U.S. Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Berlin, Germany on December 14, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday (September 4, 2025) that 26 of Ukraine’s allies have pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once fighting ends in the conflict with Russia.

Speaking after a meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing” in Paris, Mr. Macron said the countries had committed to deploying troops in Ukraine — or to maintaining a presence on land, at sea, or in the air — to help guarantee the country’s security the day after a ceasefire or peace is achieved.

Earlier on Thursday (September 4, 2025), Mr. Macron and other European leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the the U.S. envoy for peace talks, Steve Witkoff, to discuss ways of ensuring long-term military support and continued American backing for Ukraine once the conflict ends. Mr. Zelenskyy’s office said he also held a closed-door meeting with Mr. Witkoff.

The European leaders — some of whom joined the meeting virtually — said Russia must now work toward ending the fighting, and the German government suggested European sanctions on Russia would increase if Moscow drags its feet. The European leaders also later spoke by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Mr. Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who lead the group, have insisted that any European “reassurance” force in Ukraine needs the backing of the United States.

Mr. Starmer’s office said after the meeting that the British Prime Minister “emphasised that the group had an unbreakable pledge to Ukraine, with President Trump’s backing, and it was clear they now needed to go even further to apply pressure on (Russian president Vladimir) Putin to secure a cessation of hostilities.”

Mr. Starmer’s office also mentioned a decision from the coalition to supply long-range missiles to Ukraine “to further bolster the country’s supplies.”

Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, said Thursday (September 4, 2025) after meeting Mr. Witkoff and other national security advisers that the security guarantees “must be strong and effective — in the air, at sea, on land and in cyberspace.”

Some leaders took part in person in the Paris talks while others joined virtually. They were set to speak with Mr. Trump over the phone after the meeting.

“They expressed the hope that the United States would continue to make a substantial contribution to the joint efforts to support Ukraine, formulate security guarantees, and shape a productive diplomatic process,” German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said in a statement.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who attended virtually, laid out three “areas of action,” including working toward a summit that would include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and “a ceasefire must be agreed there.”

“If the Russian side continues to play for time, Europe will increase the pressure of sanctions to increase the chances of a diplomatic solution,” the statement said.

In a policy shift earlier this month, the U.S. sent positive signals over its readiness to support security guarantees for Ukraine that resemble NATO’s collective defence mandate, Mr. Zelenskyy said. It is unclear what that support would look like in practice. Ukraine is hoping for continued U.S. intelligence sharing and air support.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who attended the meeting virtually, said that a broad coalition of nations is needed to support Ukraine’s defence against Russian aggression, but also to strengthen Europe to deter further military action by Moscow.

Citing European military and intelligence officials who have warned of Russian plans to strike other European countries, Mr. Rutte said that “we have to make sure that our deterrence is such that they will never try, knowing that our reaction will be devastating.”

Mr. Rutte also called for the world to “not be naive about Russia.”

“We know what Putin tries to do and and the evidence is there in Ukraine as we speak,” he said.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, Russia fired 112 strike and decoy drones across the country overnight Thursday (September 4, 2025), according to Ukraine’s Air Force morning report. Air defences intercepted or jammed 84 drones, the statement said.

Russia on Thursday (September 4, 2025) announced that it was expelling an Estonian diplomat in a tit-for-tat move after Estonia declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata last month.

Published – September 05, 2025 01:23 am IST

Washington, United States:

US President Donald Trump revealed Wednesday he expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace talks, in an extraordinary thaw in relations after a surprise phone call between the two leaders.

In their first confirmed contact since Trump’s return to the White House, the US president said he had held a “lengthy and highly productive” conversation with the Russian counterpart who ordered the bloody 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

But the move sparked concerns that Ukraine will be left out of talks on its own fate, after Trump said Kyiv’s wish to join NATO was not “practical” — a key demand of Moscow.

Trump, who has been pushing for a quick end to the nearly three-year war, denied that Ukraine was being excluded from the direct negotiations between the two nuclear-armed superpowers.

“We expect that he’ll come here, and I’ll go there — and we’re going to meet probably in Saudi Arabia the first time,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about his plans to meet Putin.

Trump said he expected it to happen “in the not too distant future” and added that Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman — who played a key role in a Russia-US prisoner exchange this week — would also be involved.

The Kremlin said the call lasted nearly one-and-a-half hours. The two leaders had agreed that the “time has come to work together” and that Putin has invited Trump to Moscow, it said.

Before taking office on January 20, Trump had promised to end the Ukraine war “within 24 hours”.

‘Make peace’

Trump took the world by surprise as he announced the phone call on his Truth Social platform earlier, saying he and Putin had “both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” using an unconfirmed figure for the toll in the conflict.

The US president said they had agreed to “work together very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations” and to “have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” on Ukraine.

Trump later called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not included on the call with Putin.

Zelensky said afterwards that he had a “meaningful” call with Trump in which he had “shared details” of his talks with Putin.

Trump said after the conversation that Zelensky “like President Putin, wants to make PEACE.”

Andriy Yermak, head of Kyiv’s presidential office, said in televised comments that Zelensky and Trump had agreed to “immediately” start work on the high-level teams from each side who will try to hash out a deal.

The teams will “begin a process of daily work” and Zelensky and his officials will meet US officials involved at the Munich Security Conference in a day’s time, Yermak said.

But Trump’s call with Putin has raised concerns that the United States was agreeing to Russia’s terms.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth told European counterparts earlier Wednesday that Ukraine’s dream of returning to its pre-2014 borders was an “illusionary goal” — and that Kyiv’s wish for NATO membership was “not realistic.”

Both are key demands of Moscow.

Trump denied that Zelensky was being frozen out, and rejected criticism that Hegseth’s comments meant Washington was agreeing to Russia’s preconditions.

Yermak meanwhile reiterated Kyiv’s stance that Ukraine’s “independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty” cannot be subject to compromise.

The Ukrainian leader is calling for tough security guarantees from Washington as part of any deal with Russia. Trump has meanwhile suggested a deal for Kyiv’s rare earth minerals in exchange for its continued military aid.

‘Root causes’

Zelensky is due to meet US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, after meeting US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The Kremlin’s statement on the call with Trump was more measured.

It said Putin “agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement could be reached through peace negotiations” but said he wanted to “address the root causes of the conflict,” which Russian blames on western influence on Kyiv.

There had been signs of a thaw this week with a prisoner swap deal that saw Moscow free US teacher Marc Fogel and Belarus release a US citizen, while Washington released Russian cryptocurrency kingpin Alexander Vinnik.

Trump has previously expressed admiration for Putin and heaped praise on the Russian president in his Truth Social post. He said Putin “even used my very strong Campaign motto of, ‘COMMON SENSE.'” and thanked him for Fogel’s release.

However, concern has been mounting in Kyiv and European capitals about the shape of a possible deal.

The French, German and Spanish foreign ministers insisted Wednesday that there could be “no just and lasting peace” without the involvement of Kyiv and its European partners.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Beijing:

China said Friday it would be “difficult” for it to attend a planned conference on the war in Ukraine next month in Switzerland if Russia did not participate.

While China says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict, it has been criticised for refusing to condemn Moscow for its offensive.

Ukraine is trying to whip up attendance at the June peace conference, where it hopes to win broad international backing for its vision of the terms needed to end Russia’s war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged China to take part but Beijing insisted on Friday that any summit would need the participation of Russia, which Ukraine has rejected.

Beijing believes the conference “should have the recognition of Russia and Ukraine, equal participation of all parties and fair discussion of all peace plans”, foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular news conference.

“Otherwise, it is difficult for the conference to play a substantive role in restoring peace,” she said.

“The arrangement of the meeting still falls short of China’s requirements and the expectations of the international community, making it difficult for China to attend,” Mao said.

Moscow has dismissed the idea of a peace summit without Russia as “absurd”.

“From the beginning, China has spoken about the futility of holding such summits without Russia’s participation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

“Seeking options for a solution to the Ukrainian conflict without Russia’s participation is absolutely illogical, futile and a waste of time.”

On the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday, China’s top defence official reiterated Beijing’s “objective, impartial position” on the war, according to a spokesman.

“We have honoured our commitment not to provide weapons to either side of the conflict,” spokesman Wu Qian said, following the rare meeting between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and China’s Dong Jun.

“We have implemented strict controls on exports of military items,” Wu said.

“China will continue resolutely to promote peace talks and play a constructive role, but we firmly oppose the United States shifting blame onto us,” he said.

The Swiss foreign ministry on Friday said it had taken note of the Chinese position, adding: “Switzerland and China share the same principles regarding the organisation of a peace conference.

“It must allow a fair discussion of all peace plans, involve the entire international community, in particular the countries of the Global South, and involve Russia.

The ministry said it was “working actively to involve Russia”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)