Kyiv

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine are set to meet for another round of peace talks in Geneva, as United States President Donald Trump pushes for an end to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.

The two-day talks, which begin on Tuesday, are likely to focus on the issue of territory and come just days before the fourth anniversary, on February 24, of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Trump is pressing Moscow and Kyiv to reach a deal soon, though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has complained that his country is facing the greatest pressure from Washington to make concessions.

Russia ⁠is demanding that Kyiv cede the remaining 20 percent of the eastern region of Donetsk that Moscow has failed to capture – something Kyiv refuses to do.

Trump again increased the pressure on Ukraine late on Monday.

When asked about the talks on board Air Force One, he described the negotiations as “big” and said, “Ukraine better come to the table, fast.” He did not elaborate further, saying, “That’s all I am telling you.”

The talks, which the Kremlin said will be held behind closed doors and with no media present, come after two earlier rounds held this year in Abu Dhabi. Those talks did not yield a breakthrough.

“This time, the idea is to discuss a broader range of issues, including, in fact, the main ones,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. “The main issues concern both the territories and everything else related to the demands we have put forward,” he said.

Ukraine, meanwhile, said Russia was unwilling to compromise and wants to keep fighting.

“Even on the eve of the trilateral meetings in Geneva, the Russian army has no orders other than to continue striking Ukraine. This speaks volumes about how Russia regards the partners’ diplomatic efforts,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post on Monday.

“Only with sufficient pressure on Russia and clear security guarantees for Ukraine can this war realistically be brought to an end,” he added.

‘Serious’ intentions

The Russia-Ukraine war has spiralled into Europe’s deadliest conflict since 1945, with tens of thousands killed, millions forced to flee their homes and many Ukrainian cities, towns and villages devastated by the fighting.

Russia occupies about one-fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region seized before the 2022 invasion. It wants Ukrainian troops to withdraw from swaths of heavily fortified and strategic territory as part of any peace deal. Kyiv has rejected the demand, which would be politically and militarily fraught, and has instead demanded robust security guarantees from the West.

The Kremlin said the Russian delegation would be led by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin.

However, the fact that Ukrainian negotiators have accused Medinsky in the past of lecturing them about history as an excuse for Russia’s invasion ⁠has further lowered expectations for any significant breakthrough in Geneva.

Military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov will also take part in the talks, while Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev will be part of a separate ⁠working group on economic issues.

Vladmir Sotnikov, a political scientist based in Moscow, said the Russian team will consist of about 20 people, many more than delegations in previous rounds of talks.

“I think the Russian intentions are serious. Because you know, the situation here in Russia is that ordinary people are just tired of this war,” he told Al Jazeera.

Kyiv’s delegation will be led by Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, and Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov. Senior presidential aide Serhiy Kyslytsya will ‌also be present.

Before the delegation left for Geneva, Umerov said Ukraine’s goal of “a sustainable and lasting peace” remained unchanged.

As well as land, Russia and Ukraine also remain far apart on issues such as who should control the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the ‌possible ‌role of Western troops in post-war Ukraine.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will represent the Trump administration at the talks, according to the Reuters news agency. They are also attending talks in Geneva this week with Iran.

The Kremlin says it’s agreed to halt attacks on Kyiv and surrounding towns until February 1, after a request from US President Donald Trump pointing to the ‘record-setting cold’ gripping the region. Many Ukrainians have no heating, after Russian attacks on power infrastructure.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy welcomed possible one-week pause after Russian attacks left homes with no heat in plummeting temperatures.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed United States President Donald Trump’s announcement that Russia will not attack Kyiv and “various” Ukrainian towns for seven days as civilians struggle with a lack of heating amid freezing winter temperatures.

In a post on social media on Thursday, Zelenskyy said that Trump’s comments earlier in the day were an “important statement” about “the possibility of providing security for Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities during this extreme winter period”.

Zelenskyy said that the pause in bombing had been discussed by negotiators during recent ceasefire talks in the United Arab Emirates, and that they “expect the agreements to be implemented”.

“De-escalation steps contribute to real progress toward ending the war,” the Ukrainian leader added.

Trump said earlier on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to his request not to fire on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv for a week due to severely low temperatures.

“I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting, citing the “extraordinary cold” in the region.

The announcements came as Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday that 454 residential buildings remain without heating in the city, as the Ukrainian capital struggles to restore power to homes following repeated Russian bombings targeting power and heating infrastructure in recent weeks.

Temperatures are forecast to drop to -23 degrees Celsius (-9.4 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight in the Ukrainian capital this week.

Russia’s capital Moscow has experienced its heaviest snowfall in 200 years during the month of January, the meteorological observatory of Lomonosov Moscow State University said on Thursday, according to Russia’s state TASS news agency.

Russia and Ukraine also exchanged the bodies of soldiers killed in the war on Thursday, officials from both countries confirmed.

Similar exchanges have been agreed to during previous rounds of ceasefire talks. However, a breakthrough on ending Russia’s nearly four-year war on Ukraine has remained elusive.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov continued to pour cold water on ceasefire prospects on Thursday, saying that Moscow had yet to see a 20-point ceasefire plan that he said had been “reworked” by Ukraine and its allies.

Russia’s top diplomat also claimed that Ukraine had used brief pauses in fighting to “push” people to the front lines, according to TASS.