Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said so in a video address on Wednesday, February 18. “Ukraine is interested in results. As of today, we cannot say the outcome is sufficient,” Zelensky said.
He said military-to-military contacts were serious and substantive. But sensitive political questions - including possible compromises and a necessary meeting between the two countries’ leaders - “have not been worked through enough,” he added. Zelensky said he is counting on another round of talks and that “it would be right to hold it already in February,” according to the Interfax news agency.
Zelensky said he also tasked the delegation with prioritizing the humanitarian track. “We need exchanges of prisoners of war, the release of civilians,” he said, adding that the efforts of Ukraine’s Armed Forces are delivering humanitarian outcomes and bolstering Kyiv’s diplomatic position.
Zelensky called it significant that representatives of European countries — France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy — as well as Switzerland as the host nation, were present at the talks.
“It is we in Ukraine who have consistently pushed for Europe to be a participant in the process,” he said.
The Geneva talks took place on February 17 and 18.
Head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky described the consultations as tough but businesslike. “As you know, the talks went on for two days: very long yesterday in different formats,” he said, adding the next round would happen soon without specifying a date.
On the Ukrainian side, National Security and Defense Council Secretary and head of Kyiv’s delegation Rustem Umerov said several issues were clarified but “details cannot be disclosed at this stage.” He also called the discussions with Russia “intense and substantive.”
The delegations met for just two hours on the second day in Geneva.
The political component of the February 17 peace talks on the war in Ukraine “hit a dead end,” Axios reporter Barak Ravid reported, citing two sources.
Two earlier U.S.-mediated rounds in Abu Dhabi also failed to produce a breakthrough.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has previously said a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky would only be possible in Moscow.
Zelensky has responded that he “cannot come for talks” in Moscow but is ready to meet Putin in any country except Russia and Belarus.
