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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump to discuss the negotiations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. The Ukrainian leader announced this on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, February 25.
According to Zelenskyy, the parties discussed the issues that representatives of the two countries will address at a bilateral meeting in Geneva on February 26, as well as preparations for the next round of full trilateral talks in early March. The Ukrainian president noted that Donald Trump's negotiators, Stephen Witkoff and Jared Kushner, also participated in the phone call on the American side.
Zelenskyy expressed hope that the next round of meetings between Ukraine and the Russian Federation would allow for a transition to leader-level negotiations. He stated that Donald Trump supports this sequence of steps. However, the Ukrainian leader did not specify the reasons for postponing the meeting of the three countries' delegations, which had previously been scheduled for the end of February.
Donald Trump's Special Representative for Ukraine, Stephen Witkoff, previously announced that a US delegation would meet in Geneva on February 26 with Kyiv representatives, led by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov. According to Witkoff, negotiations with the Russian delegation are likely to take place within the next ten days after this meeting.
Meanwhile, according to TASS, Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian president's special representative, will arrive in Geneva on February 26 to meet with Donald Trump's envoys. A source for the Russian news agency reported that the meeting will not address the end of Russia's war against Ukraine, but that the parties intend to discuss the "economic track."
Reuters reports that this will be the second meeting in a week between representatives of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Europe. On February 23, talks also took place in Geneva. The New START Treaty, a nuclear arms control treaty, was discussed.
Negotiations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, mediated by the United States, have been ongoing since January 23, when delegations from the three countries met for two days in Abu Dhabi. Another round of talks followed on February 4–5 in the United Arab Emirates. On February 17–18, the delegations met again in Geneva. However, following these three rounds of talks, no progress toward peace was reported.
One of the most contentious issues in the negotiations to end Russia's war against Ukraine remains Moscow's demand for the transfer of uncaptured territories of Donbas without military action. Kyiv rejects such territorial claims but declares its willingness to seek compromise solutions. Specifically, Zelenskyy previously suggested the possibility of halting hostilities along the current line of contact.
Furthermore, in early February, the Ukrainian president noted that the issue of management of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which Russian forces seized in March 2022, remains unresolved. Ukraine insists on reclaiming control of the plant, while Moscow rejects even the possibility of transferring control of the facility to the United States. According to Zelenskyy, this issue must be addressed comprehensively, including in conjunction with the restoration of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. Meanwhile, Europe's largest nuclear power plant continues to suffer the consequences of shelling, despite calls from the International Atomic Energy Agency to cease hostilities near the facility.
