Name: Why the Ukraine-Russia talks in Geneva are just a show for Donald Trump | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-02-17T23:17:09.000Z
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Negotiators from the United States, Russia and Ukraine are in Geneva today to discuss a peace deal in Ukraine.

After two rounds of previous meetings in Abu Dhabi produced no substantive results, US President Donald Trump's been pressuring Ukraine, but

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not Russia, to reach a deal, even though the two sides are still far apart on critical issues, fighting on the front lines and beyond.

Russia continues to knock out key parts of Ukraine's energy infrastructure in the dead of winter.

Ukraine fighting back with drone attacks on Russian oil refineries.

Nearly four years after Russia's full scale invasion, the war in Ukraine rages on.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paints a grim picture of his country's vulnerability.

Several more cold days lie ahead, and we've all seen how Russia takes advantage of this.

We remain in constant communication with all our partners, emphasizing that every such threat only worsens the overall chances of ending this war.

The front line has barely moved in the last two years.

Russia continues to lose thousands of soldiers every month for tiny gains.

There's no reliable, independently verified data available, but

the center for Strategic and International Studies says Russia has incurred 1.2 million casualties since the war began and that Ukraine has lost at least 500,000 soldiers in that time.

The total overall casualties could reach 2 million this spring.

Despite Russia's slow advance, US President Donald Trump is impatient to end the conflict by encouraging Ukraine to make concessions.

Russia wants to make a deal and Zelensky is going to have to get moving, otherwise he's going to miss a great opportunity.

Russia's announced demands have not publicly changed in years.

It wants international recognition that the territory it has seized is now Russian.

Moscow wants strict limits on Ukraine's military, an end to its efforts to join NATO, and

what it calls denazification, claiming that Zelenskyy is an illegitimate president and should be replaced in an election.

For its part, Ukraine wants a ceasefire before discussing territory.

It insists that Russia pay hundreds of billions of euros in compensation for damages caused by the it wants security guarantees from the west and it demands the return of thousands of prisoners of war and of children allegedly abducted in the early days of the conflict and sent to Russia.

One major sticking point is Russia's demand that Ukraine hand over the 20% of the Donbas region that it still controls.

Ukraine says that's a non starter and that it would have to hold a referendum to change the constitution to break up Ukraine's territorial integrity.

However, Zelensky has also said that talks over territory could happen if a ceasefire is in place.

He's also said that Ukraine could hold elections again if there's a ceasefire.

This may be an effort to show Trump that Zelenskyy is serious about making concessions.

But the worry for Ukraine and Europe is that Trump will push Kyiv into an unfavorable deal.

And if Ukraine refuses, Trump might withdraw military support, which could make it much harder to hold off Russian advances.

Let's get more on today's talks and with DW's Nick Connolly in Kyiv and Yuri Richetto in Riga from where he's been reporting since Russian authorities closed down Moscow Bureau.

Let's start with Kyiv's goals and red lines going into these talks.

Phil, I think this is about creating images, creating a narrative for one person that is Donald Trump.

This is about showing that Ukraine is open to dialogue, that Ukraine is not the, the issue, not the blocking partner in any negotiations.

But there is no great expectation of any progress here.

There is no sense here in Kyiv that Ukraine is going to get anything from Russia that Russia is willing to, to change in any significant way its approach to this.

They are still convinced that Russia wants to keep on taking territory.

In terms of red lines, I think handing over territory that Ukraine still controls is not something that is palatable.

Even if President Zelensky wanted to, he would likely have large numbers of people out on the streets, not least people who've been in uniform fighting to keep that territory.

I think what Ukraine can offer is a cease fire along the current front lines to say, okay, we'll just freeze this where it is right now.

We will recognize Russian control de facto, not to euro.

We're not going to legalize that Russian control of Crimea, of Donetsk, of parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, but

That is something that Ukraine can offer, but

it doesn't seem from Ukraine's perspective like that is something that Russia will in any way accept.

Nick says that Ukraine's not expecting Russia's demands to change.

They haven't pretty much throughout this, this war.

Is there any reason to think that today might be, it might be different?

I don't expect much flexibility, flexibility from the Russians today either, judging by their delegation.

Phil, Moscow is sending obviously Vladimir Medinsky to Geneva, one of Putin's advisers He's not a senior military figure or a security official.

He's a historian and a former culture minister.

The last rounds of talks were led by top military officials, including the head of military intelligence.

And they dealt with sensitive issues like territory, which many saw as a sign of progress.

He also led the istanbul talks in 2022 and again in 2025, and

According to media reports, instead of addressing concrete issues, he gave long historical lectures about the supposedly Russian Donbass.

At the time, President Zelensky called the Russian delegation decorative.

We might see the same thing happen today.

If they are so decorative, if their demands don't change.

Why are the Russians in Geneva today most likely to pretend they are ready to negotiate and want peace?

We don't know whether Putin actually wants to end the war.

Some political scientists say he never expected it to drag on this long, but

now that it has, he benefits from it because it helps him keep pushing his narrative about the evil West.

According to the independent Levada center, attitudes toward the US and the EU are extremely negative.

In Russia, only about 16 to 17% of Russians blame Ukraine for the war.

Meanwhile, roughly 70%, 70.2 NATO and about 80% blame the US and only 6 to 8% say Russia itself is.

In other words, most Russians completely shifted the blame away from themselves.

Politically, this war is actually quite convenient for Putin.

Okay, so Nick Connolly, you both agreed that both sides are putting on a show for Donald Trump.

Tell us about the sort of pressure the Trump administration is putting on Kiev behind the scenes.

Well, we certainly just heard Donald Trump there once again piling on the pressure, saying it was basically for Zelensky to do a deal and the Russians were open to doing one.

That is something that Ukraine's been hearing since Donald Trump came back to the White House last year.

I think what has changed, though, is that US Kind of ability to put pressure, that leverage is actually a lot smaller.

Because effectively, Donald Trump has pulled the plug on military aid for Ukraine.

Any US Supplies now arriving in Ukraine are for cash, and

that is usually European cash or Ukrainian cash.

So it is not like there is still a lot of kind of fat that he can take away.

Ukraine is still getting some intelligence from the US but also getting lots of satellite information, as we've heard from European countries, notably France and the UK So in a way, there is less that he can take away.

In a hurry to really make things difficult for the Ukrainians.

Obviously, you know, when it comes to things like air defense, Patriot missile systems, if somehow the Americans were to make it more difficult or slow down deliveries of inceptor missiles that are being bought for Ukraine, that is obviously something that will be very damaging to Ukraine.

But I'm not sure if Trump can get away with that politically.