Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia were due to begin a second day of talks in Geneva on Wednesday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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 President Donald Trump has twice in recent days suggested that it was up to Ukraine and Zelenskiy to take steps to ensure the talks succeed.

In an interview with the U.S. website Axios published on Tuesday, Mr Zelensky stated that it was “not fair” that Mr Trump kept publicly calling on Ukraine, not Russia, to make concessions in negotiating terms for a peace plan.

Mr Zelensky 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,” Mr Zelensky said in the interview.

Mr Zelensky thanked Mr 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.

“Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you,” Mr Trump told reporters on Monday.

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.

Before the talks began, Mr 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, Mr Zelensky 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,” Mr Zelensky said. “The question for the Russians is: Just what do they want?”

The Geneva meeting followed 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, including control of territory in eastern Ukraine.

Early on Wednesday, Mr Witkoff said Mr Trump’s efforts to get Russia and Ukraine to talk were yielding results.

“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.”

(Reuters/NAN)