Ukraine-Russia war latest: Geneva peace talks set to continue after ‘very tense’ six-hour summit sees no breakthrough

Russian athletes will compete under their own flag at the Paralympics for the first time in more than a decade, and the country’s national anthem will be played for any gold medalists.

Tuesday’s announcement stands as another indicator that Russia and its national identity will be fully restored in Olympic circles well ahead of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

In a statement, the International Paralympic committee said Russia’s National Paralympic Committee had been awarded six slots for the upcoming Milan Cortina Paralympic Games.

It will mark the first time a Russian flag has been flown at the Paralympics since the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia. The country’s athletes were initially banned because of a state-sponsored doping program, and the sanctions against Russia have continued since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Volodymyr Zelensky said US president Donald Trump was exerting pressure on Ukraine to reach a ceasefire resolution, and not Russia.

Speaking to Axios, Zelensky said it was “not fair” that the US president kept publicly calling on Ukraine and not Russia to make concessions in the ongoing negotiations for a peace plan.

“I hope it is just his tactics and not the decision,” Zelensky said in an interview conducted as Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators held talks in Geneva.

Zelensky added that 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.

On Monday, Trump issued a call for Ukraine to end the war, claiming it was up to the war-hit nation to reach a conclusion.

“Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you,” Trump said on Air Force One.

Russian forces have been carrying out major strikes in recent months before and after the US-brokered peace talks but are still not utilising its full capacity, a US-based think tank has said.

They are likely refraining from fully maximising Russia’s strike capabilities in order to avoid upsetting US president Donald Trump, the Institute for the Study of War said.

“Russian forces have consistently launched large strike packages of roughly 400 to 700 drones and missiles in the days right before and after major negotiations in recent months, such as the August 2025 US-Russia Alaska summit, the November 2025 US-Ukraine talks in Geneva, the November 2025 US-Russian talks in Moscow, US-Ukrainian-European and US-Russian talks in December 2025, and two rounds of US-Ukrainian-Russian talks in Abu Dhabi in late January and early February 2026,” it noted.

ISW added that Russia may be “deliberately curtailing the size of these strike packages to maintain the facade that the Kremlin is interested in meaningful negotiations and to avoid Trump’s ire”.

German Galushchenko, who led the department from 2021 until 2025, was detained by border guards on Monday as he tried to leave the country on a train, officials said.

Investigators said the charges were related to an alleged scheme involving offshore companies benefiting his relatives. Galushchenko – also known as Herman Halushchenko – has denied wrongdoing.

US-brokered peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have resumed this week, as the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s invasion fast approaches.

There has been little progress in the talks to date, with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky recently sharing his frustration that his country is “too often” asked to make concessions.

Kyiv, however, may well be emboldened by its recent territorial gains. Advancing some 201 sq km between Wednesday and Sunday, Ukraine’s forces have effectively cancelled out Russia’s gains for the entire month of December, according to an analysis of data from the US-based monitor, the Institute for the Study of War.

German Armed Forces have said they will seek battle-hardened Ukrainian soldiers to train their troops in drone operations and defensive tactics.

A spokesperson for the Bundeswehr, Germany’s armed forces, confirmed that an agreement has been signed last week between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and German defence minister Boris Pistorius to send Ukraine troops to German military schools, reported Der Spiegel.

German officials are trusting Ukraine’s hard-earned experience in drone warfare, counter-drone tactics, and rapid deployment of modern command technologies into frontline units.

The Ukrainian troops are expected to travel to Germany soon and will focus on infantry training.

“No one in Nato currently has more war experience than Ukraine, and we must take advantage of that,” an unnamed German officer told Der Spiegel.

Details on the timing and duration of the training were not immediately clear.

German officials also believe their troops could learn from Ukraine’s experience with modern command-and-control systems.

“In a very short time, [Ukraine’s] armed forces developed relatively simple systems for planning combat operations and managing their own units, most of which can be operated via apps on standard mobile phones,” Der Spiegel wrote.

The US-mediated talks in Geneva with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were “tense” but are set to continue on Wednesday, Russian news agencies quoted a source as saying yesterday.

“(The talks) were very tense,” the source told the agencies. “They lasted six hours. They agreed to continue tomorrow.”

The source said the talks took place in a combination of different bilateral and trilateral formats.

Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine has managed to bring back 2,000 children from Russian-controlled territory as part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative.

“Today we have an important result – 2,000 Ukrainian children who were successfully returned home from Russian control as part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative,” Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian president thanked government officials, civil society groups and international partners for their role in securing each child’s return, but added that the effort is far from over.

“We still have a long and difficult road ahead of us. Thousands of Ukrainian children still remain hostages of Russia, becoming victims of its crimes every day,” he said.