Russia Launches Big Strikes Before U.S.-Ukraine Talks in Geneva
Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
American and Ukrainian negotiators met for hours on Thursday in Geneva to prepare for the next round of trilateral peace negotiations with Russia, which Ukrainian officials hope could be held as early as next week.
The negotiations started hours after Russia pummeled cities across Ukraine with drone and missile strikes. The attacks wounded at least 20 people and damaged buildings in eight regions, including in Kyiv, the capital, officials said. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a post on social media on Thursday that the Russian strikes had targeted gas infrastructure and power substations.
The latest barrage was launched just days after Ukraine marked the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The strikes took place shortly before Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, began talks in Geneva with Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s chief negotiator and head of the National Security and Defense Council, along with several other Ukrainian officials.
Mr. Umerov said on social media that the talks lasted about seven hours. He said the Americans and Ukrainians also talked with Swiss officials.
Most of the talks focused on finalizing how Ukraine’s security would be guaranteed after any peace deal, as well as on an economic package, Mr. Umerov said.
“The task is to make the next trilateral meeting involving the U.S. and Russia as substantive as possible,” he said.
Mr. Zelensky had said that the talks would focus on organizing the next meeting with Russia and would include discussion of what the Trump administration has described as a “prosperity package” for Ukraine to help the country recover after the war.
But it’s not clear if Russia will agree to anything that Ukraine and the United States want.
So far, the only concrete result of the peace talks, which started last month, has been a prisoner exchange in early February, highlighting the difficulties of reaching a deal to end the war. The last round of U.S.-mediated negotiations took place in Geneva on Feb. 17 and 18, but Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner skipped the second day of meetings, which lasted just two hours.
On Wednesday evening, Mr. Zelensky said on social media that he had spoken by phone with Mr. Trump, Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner, and he thanked them for their efforts to end the war. He said that he expected the talks on Thursday to help move the negotiations to “the leaders’ level.”
“President Trump supports this sequence of steps,” Mr. Zelensky said. “This is the only way to resolve all the complex and sensitive issues and finally end the war.”
Kim Barker is a Times reporter writing in-depth stories about the war in Ukraine.
Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine
Joining the E.U.: Negotiators agree that joining the bloc is critical to Ukraine’s future. But obstacles abound, and compromises might forever change how the union works.
Cost of War: Moscow’s invasion has killed or wounded as many as 1.2 million Russians, by some estimates, while reordering Russia’s economy and society in ways that many economists believe jeopardize the nation’s future.
Donetsk Region: Four years into the war, a major sticking point in talks is control of the region in eastern Ukraine. Residents could face an agonizing choice if Kyiv gives up the territory.
Telegram in Russia: The Kremlin moved closer to banning Telegram, accusing the app of failing to prevent its use by terrorists and criminals, in a move that was seen as a significant assault on what remained of the free Russian internet.
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