Russia-Ukraine talks: All the mediation efforts, and where they stand

EXPLAINERNearly four years into Russia’s war on Ukraine, multiple peace efforts have been started, but no end is in sight.US President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office at the White House on Friday, February 28, 2025 in Washington, DC [File: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images]Published On 18 Feb 2026One week ahead of the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, United States-led peace talks in Geneva ended for the day earlier than scheduled on Wednesday.The talks, which are being mediated by Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, are just the latest of a number of attempts to end the deadliest fighting in Europe since World War II – and none have reached a breakthrough.During his presidential campaign in 2024, Trump claimed repeatedly that he would broker a ceasefire in Ukraine within “24 hours”. However, he has been unable to fulfil this promise.Here is a timeline of the mediation efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which has killed more than a million people, as it heads towards its fifth year.Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a Russian strike on a private residential building in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on February 12, 2026, amid the ongoing Russian invasion [Tommaso Fumagalli/EPA]February 28, 2022 – direct talksThe first ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine took place just four days after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.The meeting lasted about five hours, and featured high-level officials, but with diametrically opposing goals. Nothing came of their talks.Then, the two sides held three rounds of direct talks in Belarus, ending on March 7, but, again, nothing was agreed.March-April 2022 – regional talks in AntalyaOn March 10, the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia, Dmytro Kuleba and Sergey Lavrov, met for the first time since the war started, on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkiye.A second meeting between senior leaders in Istanbul towards the end of the month failed to secure a ceasefire.Then, the withdrawal of Russian forces in early April from parts of Ukraine revealed evidence of massacres committed against the Ukrainian civilian population in Bucha and Irpin near Kyiv, in northern Ukraine.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this would make negotiations much more difficult, but that it was necessary to persist with the dialogue. Russian President Vladimir Putin later declared the negotiations were at a “dead end” as a result of Ukraine’s allegations of war crimes.A serviceman of Ukraine’s coast guard mans a gun on a patrol boat as a cargo ship passes by in the Black Sea, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, February 7, 2024 [Thomas Peter/Reuters]July 2022 – Black Sea Grain Initiative, IstanbulIn July 2022, the Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed by Ukraine and Russia with Turkiye and the United Nations in Istanbul. It was the most significant diplomatic breakthrough for the first year of the war.The agreement aimed to prevent a global food crisis by designating a safe maritime humanitarian corridor through the Black Sea for cargoes of millions of tons of grain stuck in Ukrainian ports.November 2022 – Ukraine’s peace planUkraine’s Zelenskyy presented a 10-point peace proposal at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Indonesia, within which he called for Russia’s withdrawal from all Ukrainian territory as well as measures to ensure radiation and nuclear safety, food security, and protection for Ukraine’s grain exports.He also demanded energy security and the release of all Ukrainian prisoners and deportees, including war prisoners and children deported to Russia.Russia rejected Zelenskyy’s peace proposal, reiterating that it would not give up any territory it had taken by force, which stood at about one-fifth of Ukraine by then.February 2023 – China’s peace planChina proposed a 12-point peace plan calling for a ceasefire and the end of “unilateral sanctions” that had been imposed by Western nations on Russia. Beijing urged both sides to resume talks on the basis that “the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries must be effectively upheld”.The proposal was criticised by Western allies of Kyiv for not acknowledging “Russia’s violation of Ukrainian sovereignty”.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the audience during a session at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, February 14, 2026 [File: Michael Probst/AP]June 2023 – Africa’s peace planIn 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 both Kyiv and St Petersburg to present a 10-point plan focusing on de-escalation and grain exports.Analysts said it was driven largely by the war’s impact on African food security and fertiliser prices.But Ukrainian President Zelenskyy rejected the call for “de-escalation”, arguing that a ceasefire without a Russian withdrawal would simply “freeze” the war.The following month, President Putin pulled Russia out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.August 2023 – Jeddah summitSaudi Arabia hosted representatives from 40 countries to discuss Zelenskyy’s “Peace Formula”, but no final agreement or joint statement was reached.In a major surprise, Beijing sent its special envoy, Li Hui, to the talks. But Russia was not invited, and the Kremlin said the efforts would fail.People walk among debris of a local market close to damaged residential buildings at the site of a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine on February 12, 2026 [File: Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP]June 2024 – Switzerland peace summitThe June 2024 Summit on Peace in Ukraine, held at Switzerland’s Burgenstock resort, brought together more than 90 nations to discuss a framework for ending the conflict in Ukraine. The summit focused on nuclear safety, food security and prisoner exchanges, though Russia was not invited, and several nations, including India and Saudi Arabia, did not sign the final joint communique.February 2025 – Trump-Putin callA month after beginning his second term as US president, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he held a long phone call with his Russian counterpart, Putin, in a bid to restart direct negotiations aimed at ending the war.On February 18, delegations from Washington and the Kremlin, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, met in Saudi Arabia.They laid the groundwork for future negotiations, but the talks raised significant concerns in Kyiv and Brussels, as both Ukraine and the European Union had been sidelined from the meeting.February 2025 – Zelenskyy goes to the White HouseTen days later, on February 28, there came a saturation point at the White House.In one of the most confrontational moments in modern diplomacy, President Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated President Zelenskyy in a televised meeting in the Oval Office.Zelenskyy – called out for not wearing a suit and not expressing enough gratitude to the US – found himself cornered.President Donald Trump, right, meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office at the White House, Friday, February 28, 2025, in Washington, DC [File: Mystyslav Chernov/AP]August 2025 – Witkoff goes to MoscowTrump envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to Moscow to meet Putin on August 6. It was his third trip to Moscow and came amid renewed Western threats of sanctions on Russian oil exports and US threats of “secondary” trade tariffs.Trump said afterwards that the meeting was “highly productive” and that “everyone agrees this war must come to a close”. Nothing more concrete came out of this meeting, however.August 15, 2025 – Alaska summitTrump dropped his sanctions threat and met Putin in person on August 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.