A week shy of the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, U.S.-led peace talks in Geneva ended ahead of schedule on Wednesday.
The talks, brokered by President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, are just the latest in a number of attempts to end Europe’s deadliest fighting since World War II, none of which have resulted in a breakthrough.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly claimed he would broker a ceasefire in Ukraine “within 24 hours.” However, he has not fulfilled this promise.
The following is a timeline of mediation efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which has left more than 1 million people dead, now in its fifth year.
February 28, 2022 – Direct meeting
The first ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine took place just four days after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The talks lasted about five hours and were attended by senior officials, but their goals were diametrically opposed. Nothing came of their discussion.
The two countries subsequently held three rounds of direct talks in Belarus, which ended on March 7, but again no agreement was reached.
March-April 2022 – Regional consultation in Antalya
On March 10, Ukrainian and Russian Foreign Ministers Dmytro Kuleba and Sergei Lavrov met for the first time since the start of the war on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomatic Forum in Turkiye.
A second round of talks between senior leaders in Istanbul at the end of the month failed to secure a ceasefire.
Then, with the withdrawal of Russian troops from parts of Ukraine in early April, evidence of massacres against Ukrainian civilians came to light in Bucha and Irpin, near Kyiv in northern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this would make negotiations more difficult, but that dialogue needed to continue. Russian President Vladimir Putin later declared that negotiations were at an “stalemate” as a result of Ukraine’s war crimes allegations.
July 2022 – Black Sea Grains Initiative, Istanbul
In July 2022, the Black Sea Grains Initiative was signed between Ukraine and Russia, Turkiye and the United Nations in Istanbul. It was the most important diplomatic development of the first year of the war.
The agreement aims to prevent a global food crisis by designating a safe maritime humanitarian route through the Black Sea for millions of tonnes of grain cargo stuck in Ukrainian ports.
November 2022 – Ukraine peace plan
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented a 10-point peace proposal at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Indonesia, calling for Russia’s withdrawal from all Ukrainian territory, as well as measures to ensure radiological and nuclear safety, food security, and the protection of Ukraine’s grain exports.
He also called for energy security and the release of all Ukrainian prisoners of war and deportees, including prisoners of war and children deported to Russia.
Russia rejected Mr. Zelensky’s peace proposal and reiterated that it had no intention of giving up the occupied territory, which at the time was about one-fifth of Ukraine.
February 2023 – China’s peace plan
China has proposed a 12-point peace plan calling for a ceasefire and an end to “unilateral sanctions” imposed by Western countries on Russia. The Chinese government called on both sides to resume talks, stating that “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries must be effectively maintained.”
The proposal was criticized by Kiev’s Western allies for failing to recognize “Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.”
June 2023 – Africa Peace Plan
In June 2023, a high-level delegation of African leaders, led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and including the presidents of Senegal and Zambia, visited Kyiv and St. Petersburg and presented a 10-point plan focused on de-escalation and grain exports.
Analysts said the war’s impact on Africa’s food security and fertilizer prices was the main cause.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejected calls for “détente”, insisting that a ceasefire without a Russian withdrawal would simply “freeze” the war.
The following month, President Putin withdrew Russia from the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
August 2023 – Jeddah Summit
Saudi Arabia invited representatives of 40 countries to discuss President Zelenskiy’s “peace equation,” but no final agreement or joint statement was reached.
As a big surprise, the Chinese government sent a special envoy, Li Hui, to the talks. But Russia was not invited, and the Kremlin said the effort would fail.
June 2024 – Swiss Peace Summit
The Ukraine Peace Summit, held in June 2024 at the Burgenstock resort in Switzerland, brought together more than 90 countries to discuss a framework for ending the conflict in Ukraine. The summit focused on nuclear safety, food security and prisoner exchanges, but Russia was not invited and several countries, including India and Saudi Arabia, did not sign the final joint statement.
February 2025 – Trump and Putin phone conversation
A month into his second term as U.S. president, President Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he had a long phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to resume direct negotiations to end the war.
On February 18, a delegation from Washington and the Kremlin, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, met in Saudi Arabia.
Although the two leaders laid the groundwork for future negotiations, the meeting raised serious concerns in Kiev and Brussels as Ukraine and the European Union were absent from the meeting.
February 2025 – Zelenskiy goes to the White House
Ten days later, on February 28, the White House reached saturation.
In one of the most divisive moments in modern diplomacy, President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance lashed out at President Zelenskiy during an Oval Office video conference.
Zelenskiy, who was criticized for not wearing a suit and not expressing enough gratitude to the United States, found himself cornered.
August 2025 – Witkov goes to Moscow
Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Moscow on August 6th to meet with President Putin. His third trip to Moscow comes as Western countries renew threats of sanctions on Russian oil exports and the United States threatens to impose “secondary” trade tariffs.
President Trump later said the meeting was “very productive” and that “we all agree that this war has to end.” However, nothing more concrete came out of this meeting.
August 15, 2025 – Summit, Alaska
President Trump withdrew his threat of sanctions and met directly with President Putin on August 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.
However, no agreement was reached.
August 18, 2025
President Trump welcomed Zelensky and other European leaders to Washington and said he would ask President Putin to agree to a trilateral summit.
However, no results were obtained from this visit.
November 2025 – Geneva talks
In November 2025, the Geneva talks became a flashpoint for Western unity. The Trump administration’s controversial 28-point plan has been leaked to the media and reportedly includes capping Ukraine’s military and freezing its membership in NATO. He also suggested that Ukraine should cede territory to Russia.
The draft, reportedly prepared by U.S. envoy Witkov and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, sparked accusations that the U.S. was drafting a “surrender” for Ukraine.
No agreement was reached after amendments were made to the draft proposal.
December 2025 – Berlin and Miami talks
On December 14 and 15 last year, President Zelenskiy visited Berlin and met with US special envoys Vitkov and Kushner, along with powerful European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
In response, US negotiators optimistically claimed that 90 percent of the issues between the two countries had been resolved.
Later that month, Witkoff and Kushner hosted another meeting in Miami, Florida. However, issues surrounding the sovereignty and precise boundaries of Ukraine’s Donbass region have proven unbridgeable.
And no agreement was reached.
January 2026 – Abu Dhabi talks
On January 23, high-level delegations from the United States, Ukraine, and Russia held their first face-to-face trilateral talks since the 2022 invasion.
The talks were held at Abu Dhabi’s Al Shati Palace and were mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
Another round of talks was held on February 4, in which an agreement was reached on a major prisoner exchange, but important political and security issues remained unresolved.
The delegations agreed to exchange 314 prisoners of war (157 each), the first such exchange in five months.
February 17-18, 2026: Geneva Conference
Consultations in Geneva are currently underway.
Military leaders from both Ukraine and Russia participated in the second tripartite effort with the United States to end the war in Ukraine. These have largely stalled so far, with Russia insistent on holding on to the territory it took from Ukraine.
