Kyiv-Moscow talks end

THE latest US-brokered talks between envoys from Moscow and Kyiv over Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine have ended with no sign of a breakthrough and with both sides saying the talks were “difficult, as the war's fourth anniversary approaches next week.

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The negotiations in Switzerland were the third round of direct talks organised by the US, after meetings earlier this year in Abu Dhabi that officials described as constructive but which also made no major headway.

Expectations for significant progress in Geneva were low.

“The negotiations were not easy,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said after the talks broke up and he spoke briefly by phone from Kyiv with his negotiating team.

He earlier accused Russia of “trying to drag out negotiations” while it presses on with its invasion - an accusation he and European leaders have repeatedly made in the past.