By Emma Farge and Pavel Polityuk
GENEVA/KYIV, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Ukrainian and U.S. officials gathered in Geneva for talks on post-war reconstruction on Thursday despite a deadlock in peace negotiations with Russia, which pounded infrastructure across Ukraine with drone and missile strikes overnight.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had launched 420 drones and 39 missiles in another night of attacks on energy and other critical infrastructure. Dozens of people were injured and damage was reported across eight regions, he said.
The talks in Geneva with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were expected to begin around lunchtime, a Ukrainian official said. Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s negotiating team and the head of the National Security and Defence Council, will represent Ukraine.
Proceeding with the reconstruction of Ukraine after the destruction wrought by Russian aerial strikes and frontline combat has become a major element in broader talks on how to end the war, which entered its fifth year this week.
Kyiv hopes to attract about $800 billion of public and private funds over the next 10 years to rebuild the country.
“When the whole world demands Moscow to finally stop this senseless war, Putin bets on more terror, attacks, and aggression,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in the wake of the strikes, repeating calls for more sanctions on Russia and military support for Ukraine.
Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he had spoken with U.S. President Donald Trump and agreed that the next session of trilateral talks with Russia in March should lead to a meeting of the countries’ leaders to tackle the most sensitive outstanding issues.
“This is the only way to resolve all the complex and sensitive issues and finally end the war,” Zelenskiy said after the call, which Witkoff and Kushner also participated in.
Also on Thursday in Geneva, Witkoff and Kushner are due to hold a third round of indirect talks over Iran’s nuclear program with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, mediated by Oman.
AIR RAIDS
In recent months, Russia has focused its missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s energy sector, destroying power plants and substations and plunging entire regions into prolonged blackouts.
In Kyiv, 62-year-old art teacher Larysa Fuzik said the international community needed to put more pressure on Russia as the aggressor.
“You know, even though four years of war have passed, every time the alarm sounds, I feel such fear, such coldness in my soul, such anxiety,” Fuzik said. “I immediately get dressed and run to the metro.”
Moscow has denied intentionally targeting civilians during the war although its attacks have killed thousands of them since it invaded in February 2022. Ukraine has also hit civilian targets in Russia, or Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine during the war, though on a far smaller scale.
The latest assessment from the World Bank released on Monday showed that rebuilding Ukraine’s economy will cost an estimated $588 billion. The assessment is based on data from February 24, 2022, through December 31, 2025.
The U.S. has been pressing Ukraine to find a way to end Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two. But Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart in their positions.
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met last week in Geneva for their third U.S.-mediated meeting so far this year but failed to reach any breakthrough on key sticking points, including territory.
Russia says Ukraine must cede the final 20% of the industrialised and heavily fortified eastern region of Donetsk that it still controls. Ukraine says it will not relinquish territory that thousands have died to defend.
(Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
