US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff said Washington had made “meaningful progress” in negotiations on a potential Ukrainian settlement after a first day of trilateral talks in Geneva on February 17 involving US, Ukrainian and Russian representatives.

Posting on social network X following the meeting, Witkoff said the United States had “moderated a third set of trilateral discussions with Ukraine and Russia.”

He added that the “success [of the current US administration] in bringing both sides of this war together has brought about meaningful progress.”

However, it was clear that no concrete agreements were reached as the focus of the talks broadened again. The previous round was dominated by a military delegation on both sides and focused more specifically on security issues, where, reportedly, some real progress was made. This meeting appears to have been expanded to cover all the issues on the table, including the political problems.

“Both parties agreed to update their respective leaders and continue working towards a deal,” Witkoff posted.

The discussions mark the latest diplomatic effort by the administration to push for a negotiated end to the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost exactly four years ago.

A source in the Russian delegation told Russian state news agency TASS reported on February 18 that participants in the Geneva meeting had agreed to continue contacts the following day. According to the Russian source, the six-hour talks were described as very tense.

Neither Kyiv nor Moscow immediately released detailed readouts of the session, and there was no indication of concrete agreements on key issues such as territorial control or military deployments. However, it appears that both Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin are increasingly willing to bring the conflict to an end if a compromise position can be found.

The negotiations have been going on for more than a year, but they have gathered momentum since the end of last year and the five-hour Moscow meeting on December 3 between the US envoys and Putin when a detailed 27-point peace plan (27PPP) was thrashed out. Zelenskiy submitted his own 20-point peace plan (20PPP) to the Kremlin on Christmas Eve, but despite the two versions, the substantive points remain land and security. Since then the first direct trilateral talks, including all of the US, Russia and Ukraine, began with the Abu Dhabi meeting on January 24.

As bne IntelliNews reported, going into this latest round of talks the main issues remain the same: Putin is insisting that Ukraine give up the entirety of the Donbas including territory that the Russian forces do not occupy; and Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelinskiy will not consider territorial concessions until he gets the US to both sign off on a real and strong US security deal, while at the same time that deal has to be ratified by Congress giving it the power of an international treaty.

The two sides are at an impasse on these issues; however, US President Donald Trump is getting impatient.

Last month the US leader made it clear that the deal needs to be done by June ahead of the midterm elections in the US. More recently he added presidential elections and a Ukrainian referendum on conceding territory to be held in Ukraine by May 15th.

The Kremlin is also keen to see presidential elections and promised to suspend missile and drone attacks should Ukraine go to the polls to choose a new leader. Preparations for those elections appeared to be in progress – a sign that talks are moving towards some sort of conclusion.

Despite Witkoff’s upbeat remarks, the Geneva talks appear to have become more complicated as the two sides dig into the details of a final agreement.

Russia has changed the makeup of its delegation once again and returned Vladimir Medinsky as the head of the negotiating team, who also was in charge of the talks at the failed 2022 Istanbul peace deal. He also headed the delegation when the talks first kicked off in Riyadh on February 18 last year.

Mendeleev, a former culture minister, is not a professional diplomat but a close adviser to Putin and under his leadership the talks in Saudi Arabia quickly ran into trouble as the two sides clashed over maximalist positions, unable to find any compromise.

The parties now have split up to report to their respective leaders but the talks are expected to resume in the coming days or possibly a few weeks