GENEVA: Russian and Ukrainian negotiators will meet Tuesday in Geneva for fresh US-brokered talks seeking to end the four-year war, hours after both sides launched a fresh wave of long-range strikes.
US President Donald Trump is seeking to position himself as peacemaker of the conflict unleashed when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but previous rounds of talks mediated by the White House have yielded no breakthroughs.
Before the meetings began Ukraine accused Russia of undermining peace efforts by launching 29 missiles and 396 drones in attacks that authorities said killed one, wounded others and cut power to tens of thousands.
“The extent to which Russia disregards peace efforts: a massive missile and drone strike against Ukraine right before the next round of talks in Geneva,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on social media.
He repeated Ukraine’s call for allies to exert greater pressure on Russia to negotiate in good faith by applying more sanctions on Moscow.
The talks, which the Kremlin said will be held behind closed doors and with no media present, come after two earlier rounds held this year in Abu Dhabi.
“Ukraine better come to the table, fast,” Trump told reporters ahead of the negotiations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his team had already arrived in Geneva on Monday, while a source with the Russian delegation confirmed Tuesday that their team had touched down in the Swiss city in the early hours.
Russia meanwhile claimed to have repelled more than 150 Ukrainian drones mainly over southern regions and Crimean peninsula, occupied by the Kremlin in 2014.
Officials said an oil depot in southern Russia caught fire.
Sticking points
The war has spiralled into Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, with hundreds of thousands killed, millions forced to flee their homes in Ukraine and much of the eastern and southern part of the country scarred by war.
Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukraine — including the Crimean peninsula it seized in 2014 — and areas that Moscow-backed separatists had taken prior to the 2022 invasion.
It wants Ukrainian troops to withdraw from swathes of heavily fortified and strategic territory as part of any peace deal.
Kyiv has rejected this deeply unpopular demand, which would be politically and militarily fraught, and has instead demanded robust security guarantees from the west before agreeing to any proposals with Russia.
Russia’s better-resourced army has been making steady gains across the sprawling front line in the eastern and southern Ukraine in recent months.
But Ukrainian forces have recently made significant battlefield gains, recapturing 201 square kilometers (78 square miles) last week, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War.
The counterattacks likely leveraged Russian forces’ lack of access to Starlink, which has disrupted communications, the ISW said.
The territorial gain is concentrated mainly around 80 kilometers east of the city of Zaporizhzhia, a region that Moscow claims is part of Russia, and where its troops have made significant progress since last summer.
The centrally located region hosts Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which Russia currently controls — another sticking point in negotiations.
For the talks in Geneva, the Kremlin has reinstated nationalist hawk and former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky as its lead negotiator.
“This time, we plan to discuss a broader set of issues, focusing on key ones related to the territories and other demands,” a spokesperson for President Vladimir Putin told reporters, including AFP, explaining the personnel change.
Kyiv’s team will be led by national security chief Rustem Umerov, while the White House is expected to dispatch Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
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Moscow, Kyiv meet for US-brokered talks after fresh attacks
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Moscow, Kyiv meet for US-brokered talks after fresh attacks
- Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga repeated Ukraine’s call for allies to exert greater pressure on Russia to negotiate in good faith by applying more sanctions on Moscow
More than 200 political prisoners in Venezuela launch hunger strike
GUATIRE: More than 200 Venezuelan political prisoners were on hunger strike Sunday to demand their release under a new amnesty law that excludes many of them.
The inmates at the Rodeo I prison, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of capital Caracas, shouted to their loved ones as part of the protest, an AFP journalist witnessed.
“Freedom!,” “release us all!” and “Rodeo I on strike” were among the cries from the prisoners that were audible from outside the facility.
The amnesty law was approved by Venezuela’s congress on Thursday as part of a wave of reforms encouraged by the United States after it ousted and captured former president Nicolas Maduro on January 3.
The hunger strike, which began Friday night, came about after inmates complained they would not benefit from the law because it excludes cases involving the military, which are the most common ones at that facility.
“Approximately 214 people in total, including Venezuelans and foreigners, are on hunger strike,” said Yalitza Garcia, mother-in-law of a prisoner named Nahuel Agustin Gallo.
Gallo, an Argentine police officer, is accused of terrorism, another category that is excluded.
“They decided Friday to go on hunger strike because of the scope of the amnesty law, which excludes many of them,” said Shakira Ibarreto, the daughter of a policeman arrested in 2024.
On Sunday, a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited the Rodeo I prison.
“This is the first time they have allowed us to approach that prison,” Filippo Gatti, the ICRC’s health coordinator for Venezuela, told family members. “It’s a first step, and I think we’re on the right track.”
Not all the inmates at the prison were joining the hunger strike, the relatives said.
- Amnesty law criticized -
The amnesty law was engineered by interim leader Delcy Rodriguez under pressure from Washington after US commandos attacked Venezuela on January 3, snatched Maduro and his wife and took them to the United States for trial on drug trafficking charges.
Opposition figures have criticized the new legislation, which appears to include carve-outs for some offenses previously used by authorities to target Maduro’s political opponents.
The law also excludes members of the security forces convicted of activities related to what the government considered terrorism.
But the amnesty extends to 11,000 political prisoners who, over nearly three decades, were paroled or placed under house arrest.
More than 1,500 political prisoners in Venezuela have already applied for amnesty under the bill, the head of the country’s legislature said Saturday.
Hundreds of others had already been released by Rodriguez’s government before the amnesty bill was approved.
On Sunday, a handful of inmates were released from Rodeo I, carrying release papers in their hands. They were greeted with applause.
“I’m out, I love you so much, my queen! I’m doing well,” Robin Colina, one of the freed prisoners, said excitedly into a mobile phone.
Armando Fusil, another released prisoner, told AFP: “Right now there are quite a few people on hunger strike because they want to get out.”
The 55-year-old police commissioner from the western state of Maracaibo said he was “arrested for no reason” in October 2024.
He said loved ones came to visit him every Friday since his arrest, taking a nearly 40-hour trip just for a little bit of face time each week.
Now, they’re coming to pick him up for good.
“We all help each other,” Fusil said about his fellow detainees. “It’s created a beautiful brotherhood.”
The NGO Foro Penal, dedicated to the defense of political prisoners, reported 23 releases on Sunday.
Maduro ruled Venezuela between March 2013 and January 2026, silencing opposition and activists under his harsh leftist rule.
Maduro and his wife are in US custody awaiting trial. Maduro, 63, has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges and declared that he is a prisoner of war.
The inmates at the Rodeo I prison, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of capital Caracas, shouted to their loved ones as part of the protest, an AFP journalist witnessed.
“Freedom!,” “release us all!” and “Rodeo I on strike” were among the cries from the prisoners that were audible from outside the facility.
The amnesty law was approved by Venezuela’s congress on Thursday as part of a wave of reforms encouraged by the United States after it ousted and captured former president Nicolas Maduro on January 3.
The hunger strike, which began Friday night, came about after inmates complained they would not benefit from the law because it excludes cases involving the military, which are the most common ones at that facility.
“Approximately 214 people in total, including Venezuelans and foreigners, are on hunger strike,” said Yalitza Garcia, mother-in-law of a prisoner named Nahuel Agustin Gallo.
Gallo, an Argentine police officer, is accused of terrorism, another category that is excluded.
“They decided Friday to go on hunger strike because of the scope of the amnesty law, which excludes many of them,” said Shakira Ibarreto, the daughter of a policeman arrested in 2024.
On Sunday, a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited the Rodeo I prison.
“This is the first time they have allowed us to approach that prison,” Filippo Gatti, the ICRC’s health coordinator for Venezuela, told family members. “It’s a first step, and I think we’re on the right track.”
Not all the inmates at the prison were joining the hunger strike, the relatives said.
- Amnesty law criticized -
The amnesty law was engineered by interim leader Delcy Rodriguez under pressure from Washington after US commandos attacked Venezuela on January 3, snatched Maduro and his wife and took them to the United States for trial on drug trafficking charges.
Opposition figures have criticized the new legislation, which appears to include carve-outs for some offenses previously used by authorities to target Maduro’s political opponents.
The law also excludes members of the security forces convicted of activities related to what the government considered terrorism.
But the amnesty extends to 11,000 political prisoners who, over nearly three decades, were paroled or placed under house arrest.
More than 1,500 political prisoners in Venezuela have already applied for amnesty under the bill, the head of the country’s legislature said Saturday.
Hundreds of others had already been released by Rodriguez’s government before the amnesty bill was approved.
On Sunday, a handful of inmates were released from Rodeo I, carrying release papers in their hands. They were greeted with applause.
“I’m out, I love you so much, my queen! I’m doing well,” Robin Colina, one of the freed prisoners, said excitedly into a mobile phone.
Armando Fusil, another released prisoner, told AFP: “Right now there are quite a few people on hunger strike because they want to get out.”
The 55-year-old police commissioner from the western state of Maracaibo said he was “arrested for no reason” in October 2024.
He said loved ones came to visit him every Friday since his arrest, taking a nearly 40-hour trip just for a little bit of face time each week.
Now, they’re coming to pick him up for good.
“We all help each other,” Fusil said about his fellow detainees. “It’s created a beautiful brotherhood.”
The NGO Foro Penal, dedicated to the defense of political prisoners, reported 23 releases on Sunday.
Maduro ruled Venezuela between March 2013 and January 2026, silencing opposition and activists under his harsh leftist rule.
Maduro and his wife are in US custody awaiting trial. Maduro, 63, has pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges and declared that he is a prisoner of war.
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