The next round of talks on Ukraine will take place in Geneva on Feb. 17-18, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
According to Peskov, cited by Russian state media outlet TASS, Vladimir Medinsky will lead the Russian delegation. Peskov also confirmed that the meetings will be held in a trilateral format including Russia, the US, and Ukraine.
Ukraine’s presidential office confirmed the dates and format of the peace talks. Presidential communications adviser Dmytro Lytvyn told reporters that Kyiv’s delegation is currently preparing for the negotiations.
At the center of the discussion is Medinsky, former Russian culture minister and favored ideologue of Russian President Vladimir Putin. RBC-Ukraine notes that Medinsky organizes propaganda events in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine and supports Russian military units through the Russian Military Historical Society, which he founded and leads.
He also oversees Kremlin-aligned indoctrination programs for schoolchildren and has authored history textbooks used across Russia and in Ukraine’s occupied territories.
Observers have recalled Medinsky’s role in talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 16, 2025, where he cited fabricated quotes attributed to Napoleon I and Otto von Bismarck.
According to Russian outlet Vazhnye Novosti, Medinsky told Russian television propagandist Yevgeny Popov that he had conducted the negotiations according to a folder of documents, which he showed him during the broadcast. Medinsky then launched into an improvised lecture on various historical wars – from the Russo-Turkish conflicts to World War I and the Soviet-Finnish War – ultimately using these dubious historical references to argue that Russia could not accept a 30-day unconditional ceasefire.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Information Counteraction Center, later addressed Medinsky’s claims.
He said Medinsky had falsely attributed to Bismarck the line that Russians cannot be deceived because they “always come back for their own.” Kovalenko stressed that no such wording appears in Bismarck’s memoirs, letters, or speeches – a point confirmed by German historians and even by Medinsky’s own Russian Military Historical Society.
Medinsky had likewise misquoted Napoleon, attributing to him a statement about conducting war and negotiations simultaneously. According to Kovalenko, no historical sources support this claim either.
He concluded that Medinsky’s repeated use of apocryphal quotations appears designed to provide ideological cover for Moscow’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday said negotiations to end the war in Ukraine remain far from finished, dismissing what he called overly optimistic claims of progress.
Speaking to Russian TV, Lavrov said talks held in Abu Dhabi showed there was “still a long way to go,” pushing back on suggestions that US President Donald Trump had forced Kyiv and Europe toward a ceasefire.
Prior to that, Lavrov accused Washington of derailing its own peace initiative, claiming Russia accepted US proposals during earlier talks in Anchorage but that the Americans later backed away while maintaining sanctions.
Previous US-mediated Russia-Ukraine talks took place on Jan. 23-24 and Feb. 4-5. Trump said a settlement was “almost achieved,” while US envoy Steve Witkoff called the discussions “constructive” – an assessment echoed by Peskov.
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, a “fundamental difference” remains: Kyiv wants a ceasefire which would retain current territory, while Russia is demanding sweeping concessions, including Ukraine’s withdrawal from large areas and international recognition for Russian-occupied regions.
Four years into Russia’s full-scale war, Moscow has gained control over roughly 20 percent of Ukraine, with the Kremlin promising to push onwards if peace talks collapse.