GENEVA – U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has reported ‘meaningful progress’ in trilateral negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian delegations during ongoing peace talks in Switzerland. The discussions, mediated by Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, entered their second day on Wednesday amid cautious optimism from American officials despite fundamentally opposing positions from both conflict parties.
Witkoff publicly credited President Trump’s diplomatic influence for bringing the warring nations to the negotiation table. ‘President Trump’s success in bringing both sides of this war together has brought about meaningful progress,’ Witkoff stated on social media platform X, emphasizing the administration’s commitment to ‘stop the killing in this terrible conflict.’
The negotiations, occurring just one week before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, face significant hurdles due to Moscow’s unwavering territorial demands. The Kremlin maintains its maximalist position seeking Ukrainian cession of additional territories beyond the approximately 20% of the country it currently occupies, including complete control of the eastern Donbas region – conditions Ukraine has categorically rejected.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed concerns about the negotiation dynamics, telling Axios that ‘it’s not fair’ that Trump consistently pressures Ukraine to broker a deal without equivalent demands on Russia. Zelensky warned that lasting peace cannot be achieved by simply ‘handing victory to Russia,’ while cautiously hoping the American approach represents ‘just his tactics and not the decision.’
Top Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov reported that initial discussions focused on ‘practical issues and the mechanics of possible solutions’ during six hours of tense negotiations that utilized both bilateral and trilateral formats. Zelensky subsequently indicated Ukraine’s willingness to refrain from military strikes as proposed by U.S. mediators, asserting that ‘We don’t need war’ but are ‘defending our state, our independence.’
The talks proceed against a backdrop of continued violence, with Russia’s Defense Ministry reporting the destruction of 43 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and Crimea overnight. This followed a massive combined aerial assault by Russia against Ukraine the previous night, involving approximately 400 drones and nearly 30 missiles across 12 regions that resulted in at least three Ukrainian fatalities according to officials in Kyiv.