The Kremlin said that Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky was and remains the head of the Russian delegation at the talks with Ukraine, while he did not participate in the meetings in Abu Dhabi because of the topics that were considered there.
“There we were talking about security issues, issues directly related to the military, and therefore our group there was headed by Kostyukov (head of the Main Directorate of the Russian General Staff (GRU) Igor Kostyukov – ed.), and the group consisted of the military,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained on 16 February.
In Geneva, he said, they plan to discuss “a wider range of issues, including the main issues related to territories and everything else that is related to the demands” of the Russian Federation.
Last week, the Ukrainian president’s office informed that a new round of talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States would be held in Geneva on 17-18 February. The Kremlin also announced the dates and venue, noting that the Russian delegation will be led by Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who last year already led Russian representatives at the talks. At that time, the delegation actually rejected the ceasefire and also demanded that Russia recognise Ukraine’s occupied territories and limit the number of the AFU. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte criticised Medinsky for the lack of constructiveness.
On 23-24 January, as well as on 4 and 5 February, Abu Dhabi (UAE) hosted US-mediated talks between Ukraine and Russia on ways to end the war. The parties did not achieve a significant breakthrough in ending the war. As a result of the meeting on 5 February, the delegations reached an agreement on the exchange of prisoners of war, the first in the last five months.
U.S. Presidential Special Envoy Steve Witkoff called the discussions on 4 and 5 February “constructive and focused on how to create the conditions for a lasting peace.” He said the talks in Abu Dhabi, UAE, had discussed a ceasefire.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the talks on 4 February that the list of open issues between Ukraine and Russia on reaching a peace agreement had been reduced, but, according to him, the “most difficult” issues remain. Before that, on 28 January, Rubio said that the territorial issue remained unresolved.
In January, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the territorial issue within the framework of the so-called “Anchorage formula” is important for Russia. The Kremlin does not disclose the content of the formula.
According to Reuters, it envisages Russian control over all of Donbass and freezing the rest of the front line. Russian officials regularly appeal to” agreements” that the Kremlin claims were reached by Russia and the United States at the U.S.-Russian summit in Anchorage, Alaska, in August 2025, even though no agreements were reported following that meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
On 25 January, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a visit to Vilnius that Kiev’s position on the territories had not changed and that all sides should be ready to compromise. He also said that the bilateral security guarantees from the USA were “100 per cent ready” and Kiev was waiting for them to be signed. In December, President Zelenskyy said that the issue of possible territorial solutions should be decided by the people of Ukraine “in the format of an election or in the format of a referendum”.