Missiles fly as 3rd round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks kick off in Geneva

Ukraine’s lead negotiator says Kyiv will work ‘constructively’ but ‘without excessive expectations’.

Russian and Ukrainian officials launched a third round of United States-brokered peace negotiations in Switzerland, days before the Ukraine war hits its four-year mark.

Ukraine’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov said the two days of talks that started on Tuesday will include “security and humanitarian issues”.

The Ukrainian side is “working constructively, focused and without excessive expectations”, Umerov posted on social media.

Ahead of the talks, Russia carried out heavy air strikes overnight across swathes of Ukraine, inflicting severe damage to the power network in the southern port city of Odesa, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said left tens of thousands of people without heat and water.

Zelenskyy called for Kyiv’s allies to increase pressure on Russia to reach a “real and just” peace deal via tougher sanctions and weapons supplies to Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump has pushed both Moscow and Kyiv to reach ⁠a deal to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945, though Zelenskyy has complained his country is facing more pressure to make concessions.

When asked by reporters what he expects from the Geneva negotiations, Trump singled out Ukraine.

“Well we have big talks,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “It’s going to be very easy. I mean, look, so far Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you.”

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

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