Ukraine-Russia peace talks enter second day in Geneva with pressure on Kyiv

By John Revill and Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia were due to begin a second day of talks in Geneva on Wednesday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the United States was putting undue pressure on him to bring an end to the four-year-old war.

The U.S.-mediated peace talks in Switzerland have been taking place as U.S. President Donald Trump has twice in recent days suggested it was up to Ukraine and Zelenskiy to take steps to ensure the talks were successful.

In an interview with U.S. website Axios published on Tuesday, Zelenskiy was quoted as saying that it was "not fair" that Trump kept publicly calling on Ukraine, not Russia, to make concessions in negotiating terms for a peace plan.

Zelenskiy also said any plan requiring Ukraine to give up territory that Russia had not captured in the eastern Donbas region would be rejected by Ukrainians if put to a referendum.

"I hope it is just his tactics and not the decision," Axios quoted Zelenskiy as saying in the interview.

Zelenskiy thanked Trump again for his peacemaking efforts and told Axios that his conversations with the top U.S. negotiators, envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, did not involve the same kind of pressure.

Trump told reporters on Monday that "Ukraine better come to the table fast. That's all I'm telling you."

Ukraine's lead negotiator Rustem Umerov, the head of the National Security and Defence Council, said that Tuesday's talks had focused on "practical issues and the mechanics of possible decisions," without providing details.

Russian officials made no comments on the talks.

However, Russian news agencies quoted a source as saying that the talks were "very tense" and lasted six hours in different bilateral and trilateral formats.

Before the talks began, Umerov played down hopes for a significant step forward in Geneva, saying the Ukrainian delegation was working "without excessive expectations".

In his nightly address on Tuesday, Zelenskiy said he was waiting for a report from the negotiating team in Geneva.

"We are ready to move quickly toward a worthy agreement to end the war," Zelenskiy said. "The question for the Russians is: Just what do they want?"

The Geneva meeting follows two rounds of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi that concluded without a major breakthrough as the two sides remained far apart on key issues such as the control of territory in eastern Ukraine.

Early on Wednesday, Witkoff said Trump's efforts to get Russia and Ukraine talking were yielding fruit.

"President Trump's success in bringing both sides of this war together has brought about meaningful progress, and we are proud to work under his leadership to stop the killing in this terrible conflict," he said on X. "Both parties agreed to update their respective leaders and continue working towards a deal."