World
Zelensky confirms Ukraine-US meeting in Geneva Thursday
Kyiv has announced that lead Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov will meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Geneva on Thursday, ahead of new trilateral talks with Russia expected in early March.
The meetings mark the latest round of negotiations led by US President Donald Trump, which so far have struggled to produce significant progress toward ending Russia’s four-year invasion of Ukraine.
“Tomorrow he will meet with American negotiators Witkoff and (Jared) Kushner,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters, including those from AFP.
He added that the meeting was part of “preparations for a trilateral meeting with Russia, which we believe will take place in early March”.
Umerov’s adviser told reporters separately that the meeting on Thursday will be in Geneva, which hosted talks with Russian, Ukrainian, and US officials earlier this month.
Other issues on the agenda for Thursday are prisoner-of-war exchanges and a “prosperity package” for the reconstruction of Ukraine, Zelensky said.
Witkoff confirmed the talks earlier this week saying the aim was to “explore different iterations about how we might get to a peace deal.”
United States has been pushing for an end to the war that has entered its fifth year and which has killed tens of thousands and destroyed much of eastern and southern Ukraine.
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, and has threatened to take it by force if Kyiv does not cave at the negotiating table.
But Ukraine has rejected the demand and signalled it would not sign a deal without security guarantees that deter Russia from invading again.

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