Geneva talks press ahead as Russia batters Ukraine with night strikes

Thursday 26 February 2026 - 12:20

By: Dakir Madiha

Geneva talks press ahead as Russia batters Ukraine with night strikes

Ukrainian and United States negotiators convened in Geneva on Thursday for a fresh round of talks on postwar reconstruction and the next phase of peace diplomacy, only hours after Russia unleashed one of its heaviest aerial barrages in months across multiple Ukrainian regions. Ukraine’s delegation is led by chief negotiator Rustem Umerov, who is joined for the first time by Economy Minister Oleksii Sobolev, underscoring that the agenda is dominated by long term recovery plans, investment tools, and economic guarantees. On the U.S. side, President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are seeking to translate battlefield stalemate into a framework for reconstruction and, eventually, a political settlement that could be endorsed by the leaders of all three countries.

The Geneva meeting is centered on a proposed prosperity package that could unlock hundreds of billions of dollars in public and private financing to rebuild Ukraine’s devastated infrastructure, revive key industries, and support returning refugees. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he and Trump agreed in a recent phone call that this technical work should pave the way for a trilateral round with Russia in early March and, if there is enough progress, a direct summit bringing together the presidents of Ukraine, the United States, and Russia. Zelenskyy described a three way summit as the only format capable of resolving the hardest issues left on the table, including the status of Russian occupied territory and binding security guarantees for Kyiv.

The diplomatic push is playing out amid unrelenting attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure. Overnight, Russian forces launched about 420 Shahed type drones and 39 missiles, including 11 ballistic missiles, striking targets in at least eight regions and injuring dozens of people, among them children. President Zelenskyy said gas facilities in Poltava region and power substations in the Kyiv and Dnipro regions were hit, knocking out electricity for tens of thousands of consumers and forcing emergency repair crews to work through the night. He credited recently delivered Western air defense missiles with downing most of the incoming weapons but warned that Ukraine still needs a steady flow of interceptors as Russia tries to wear down its energy system during the winter.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to gain leverage at the negotiating table by escalating strikes even as the world presses Moscow to halt the war. Zelenskyy has argued that each new wave of missiles and drones makes it politically harder to contemplate territorial concessions and narrows the space for compromise in Geneva and future venues. Russian officials, for their part, say they are prepared to keep talking but continue to insist on expanded control in eastern Ukraine, a demand Ukrainian leaders publicly reject as incompatible with a durable peace.

Three earlier rounds of U.S mediated discussions, two held in Abu Dhabi and one in Geneva in mid February, ended without agreement on core questions such as borders, demilitarised zones, and the status of the Russian controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Kyiv has signalled that working level negotiators are unlikely to break the deadlock over territory and that only a leaders’ meeting has a realistic chance of shifting entrenched positions. Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev is also in Geneva for separate economic contacts with American counterparts, although there is no indication he will meet the Ukrainian side during this visit. Diplomats involved in the process say the next trilateral session could take place in the first week of March, provided the Geneva talks yield enough technical progress on the prosperity package and security arrangements to justify another high level encounter.