Kyiv must negotiate ‘fast’

• Land in focus at Geneva peace talks
• Kyiv says Russian drone kills 3 energy workers 

US President Donald Trump said Monday that he hopes Ukraine reaches a deal with Russia “fast,” as Washington-brokered peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv began in Geneva.

“Ukraine better come to the table, fast,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while en route to Washington.

Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia gathered in Geneva yesterday for two days of US-mediated peace talks that will focus on the main sticking point of land.

Trump is pressing Moscow and Kyiv to reach a deal to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945, though Zelensky has complained that his country is facing the greatest pressure to make concessions.

Ahead of the talks, Russia carried out heavy airstrikes overnight across swathes of Ukraine, inflicting severe damage on the power network in the southern port city of Odesa, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said left tens of thousands without heat and water.

A Russian drone strike on east Ukraine early yesterday killed three energy workers near the industrial town of Sloviansk, Kyiv said.

Zelensky called for Kyiv’s allies to increase pressure on Russia to reach a “real and just” peace deal via tougher sanctions and weapons supplies to Ukraine, reports Reuters.

Trump pointed to Ukraine when asked by reporters what he was expecting from the talks in Geneva, which will follow a morning of negotiations between US and Iranian officials at a different venue in the Swiss lakeside city.

“Well, we have big talks,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “It’s going to be very easy. I mean, look, so far, Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you.”