Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia wrapped up the first of two days of U.S.-brokered peace talks in Geneva on Tuesday, with U.S. President Donald Trump pressing Kiev to act quickly to reach a deal to end the four-year conflict.
Ahead of the negotiations in Switzerland, Russia carried out overnight airstrikes across Ukraine, severely damaging the power grid in the southern port city of Odessa.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks left tens of thousands of people without heat and water.
"We are ready to move quickly towards a decent agreement to end the war," Zelensky said in his evening speech, saying he was waiting for a report from the negotiating team in Geneva. "The question for the Russians is: What do they want?"
Ukraine's chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, head of the National Security and Defense Council, said in a statement that the day's talks had focused on "practical issues and the mechanics of possible decisions," without providing details.
He announced that negotiations will resume on Wednesday for one final day.
The Geneva meeting comes after two rounds of US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi that ended without much progress, as the two sides remained far apart on key issues, such as control of territory in eastern Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump is urging Moscow and Kiev to reach a deal to end Europe's biggest war since 1945, although Zelensky has complained that his country is facing more pressure to make concessions.
Before the talks began, Umerov downplayed hopes for a significant step forward in Geneva, saying the Ukrainian delegation was working "without excessive expectations."
American envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, represented the Trump administration in the talks.
In a rare attempt to negotiate two major global crises simultaneously, they participated in morning indirect negotiations with Iranian officials in Geneva before mediating talks between Ukraine and Russia.
And Trump put the ball in Ukraine's court when asked by reporters what he expected from Tuesday's talks with Russia, writes Reuters, the Telegraph reports.
"Ukraine needs to sit down at the table quickly. That's all I'm telling you," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Russia is demanding that Ukraine relinquish the remaining 20% of the eastern Donetsk region that Moscow has failed to capture - something Kiev refuses to do.
Delegations from several European countries were present in Geneva, according to four sources familiar with the matter, but did not participate in the trilateral peace talks themselves.
The Europeans were invited after Zelensky asked US officials to include them, one of the sources said, adding that they would be briefed by the Americans and Ukrainians about the discussions.
Russia has in the past expressed its opposition to European involvement. /Telegraph/
