US-brokered negotiations in Switzerland began on Tuesday but expectations for breakthroughs are low
Good morning and welcome to our Europe live blog. The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the US was putting undue pressure on him to bring the war to an end, as negotiators from Ukraine and Russia are set to gather for a second day of peace talks in Geneva.
The US-brokered negotiations in Switzerland began on Tuesday but expectations for any breakthroughs were low, with neither side seemingly unwilling to budge on key issues including control of territory in eastern Ukraine and future security guarantees, despite the US setting a June deadline for a settlement.
US president Donald Trump has recently suggested that the onus was on Ukraine to take steps to ensure the talks were successful, but Zelenskyy has hit back, saying it was “not fair” that Trump is publicly calling on Ukraine, and not Russia, to make concessions for peace.
“I hope it is just his tactics and not the decision,” Zelenskyy told the US website Axios.
