Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on Wednesday, February 25th ahead of peace talks.
Zelensky posted on X that they
discussed the issues that our representatives will address tomorrow in Geneva during the bilateral meeting, as well as preparations for the next meeting of the full negotiating teams in a trilateral format at the very beginning of March.
We expect this meeting to create an opportunity to move talks to the leaders’ level. President Trump supports this sequence of steps. This is the only way to resolve all the complex and sensitive issues and finally end the war.
U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner also took part in the 30-minute call.
The meeting is scheduled to bring together the Trump envoys with Ukraine’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov, with a full trilateral session involving Russia expected in early March. Russian state news agency Tass reported the Kremlin’s economic affairs envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, also aims to be in the Swiss city. An unnamed source claims
Dmitriev plans to arrive in Geneva on Thursday to pursue negotiations with the Americans on economic issues.
However, hours before the meeting, Russian forces launched a wave of attacks in Ukraine before dawn. The Ukrainian Air Force reported high-speed objects speeding toward the capital, and Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration, later said Russia was using drones and ballistic missiles for its bombardment of the capital.
Attacks also took place in the regions of Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk, with officials reporting seven wounded in Kharkiv alone.
