Russia trying to drag out negotiations that could already reach final stage - Zelenskyy

The aggressor country of russia is trying to drag out negotiations that could already reach the final stage.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced this on the Telegram channel, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Yesterday there were really difficult meetings, and we can state that russia is trying to drag out negotiations that could already reach the final stage. I thank the American side for its attention to detail and patience in conversations with the russian representatives present," he said.

Zelenskyy said that before the start of today's work of the delegations in Geneva (Switzerland), he held a meeting with the Ukrainian team.

Yesterday there were different formats of meetings: both bilateral - between Ukraine and America, and multilateral.

In particular, there were negotiations between Ukrainian, American and russian representatives in two directions, namely - on military and military-political issues.

The Ukrainian delegation, together with the American team, also met with European representatives - Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

Zelenskyy said that he had set a clear task for the Ukrainian delegation - to do everything to ensure that the negotiations were still effective and increased the chances for peaceful solutions.

Among other things, the humanitarian direction should be discussed today, namely - steps to exchange prisoners of war and release civilians.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the second day of trilateral negotiations began in Geneva (Switzerland) on February 18.

Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Rustem Umerov reported that consultations are taking place in groups by direction within the political and military blocs; work is underway to clarify the parameters and mechanics of the solutions that were discussed yesterday.

On February 17, another round of negotiations in a trilateral format - Ukraine, the United States, russia - began in Geneva.

Security and humanitarian issues are on the agenda.