‘Difficult’ peace talks spotlight Putin’s chief negotiator and Ukraine antagonist

Russia and Ukraine don’t agree on much, but both sides left the latest round of U.S.-led peace talks Wednesday describing the negotiations as “difficult.”

Moscow — and increasingly President Donald Trump — have blamed Ukraine for the absence of a deal, while Kyiv argues it is instead the Kremlin that is stalling.

The future of territory in Ukraine’s east is a key sticking point as the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches next week, with Vladimir Putin’s hard-line demands fueling doubts over whether he actually wants to strike a deal.

To many in Ukraine and outside observers of the war, the lack of progress should be no surprise given the man Putin sent to Geneva this week as his chief negotiator.

The Russian delegation at the first two rounds of recent trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi was led by the country’s chief of military intelligence, Adm. Igor Kostyukov. But Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky led Moscow’s team in the Swiss city this week.

“Russia is trying to drag out negotiations,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X on Wednesday. He later told reporters the talks were not easy, with the two sides still not aligned on “sensitive” topics.

Medinsky described the two-day talks as “difficult but businesslike.”

The two sides indicated they would meet again, and Zelenskyy said some progress was made on military issues, particularly America’s role in monitoring any future ceasefire.

Medinsky led Russia in the first direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in March 2022, just weeks after the invasion. Those talks did not lead to a deal, with Kyiv choosing to fight on with the military backing of its Western allies.

Medinsky, 55, an aide to Putin since 2020, is known as a loyal lieutenant, with interpretations of Ukrainian history that mirror those of the Russian leader himself.

The Kremlin has weaponized history to bolster its invasion, asserting that much of Ukraine has always been part of Russia, rather than an independent state. “It would seem obvious to anyone with an elementary school history background: Russians and Ukrainians are historically one people,” Medinsky wrote in a November op-ed in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

After Medinsky’s brief statement on the state of the peace talks Wednesday, a Russian reporter asked: “Were there any history lessons at least?”

Those on the other side of the table seemed to be expecting similar.

“On the road, together with colleagues, we will discuss the lessons of our history and look for the right conclusions,” Zelenskyy’s new chief of staff, Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, said in a post on X on Sunday as he made his way to Geneva.

“We don’t have time for all this s—,” Zelenskyy told Axios in an interview Tuesday, when asked about Medinsky’s tendency to philosophize about the “historical roots” of the war.

NATO chief Mark Rutte suggested that the re-introduction of Medinsky into the peace process may betray Putin’s intentions.

“Is he serious, Putin, about all of this?” Rutte said at the Munich Security Conference last week. “He is again sending this historian next week to do the talks in Geneva.”