One 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.
February 28, 2022 – direct talks
The 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 Antalya
On 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.
July 2022 – Black Sea Grain Initiative, Istanbul
In 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 plan
Ukraine’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 plan
China 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”.
June 2023 – Africa’s peace plan
In 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 summit
Saudi 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.
June 2024 – Switzerland peace summit
The 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 call
A 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 House
Ten 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.
August 2025 – Witkoff goes to Moscow
Trump 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 summit
Trump dropped his sanctions threat and met Putin in person on August 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.
But no deal was reached.
August 18, 2025
Trump hosted Zelenskyy and other European leaders in Washington and said he would ask Putin to agree to a trilateral summit.
But nothing came out of this visit, either.
November 2025 – Geneva talks
In November 2025, the Geneva talks became a flashpoint for Western unity, as the Trump administration’s controversial 28-point plan leaked to the press, reportedly involving a cap on Ukraine’s military and a freeze on NATO membership. It also suggested that Ukraine should cede territory to Russia.
Reportedly authored by US envoy Witkoff along with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, the draft sparked accusations that the US was drafting a “capitulation” for Ukraine.
No deal was reached after revisions were made to the draft proposal.
December 2025 – Berlin and Miami talks
On December 14 and 15 last year, President Zelenskyy travelled to Berlin to meet US envoys Witkoff and Kushner, alongside a powerful group of European leaders, including Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron.
Following this, US negotiators optimistically claimed that 90 percent of the issues between the two sides had been resolved.
Then, later in the month, Witkoff and Kushner hosted another session of talks in Miami, Florida in the US. But the issues around sovereignty over Ukraine’s Donbas region and the exact line of demarcation proved impossible to bridge.
And no deal was reached.
January 2026 – Abu Dhabi talks
On January 23, high-level delegations from the US, Ukraine and Russia sat face to face to hold trilateral talks for the first time since the 2022 invasion.
Hosted at the Al Shati Palace in Abu Dhabi, talks were mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
Another round of talks was held on February 4, reaching an agreement on a major prisoner exchange but leaving key political and security issues unresolved.
The delegations agreed to exchange 314 prisoners of war – 157 each – the first such swap in five months.
February 17-18, 2026: Geneva talks
Talks in Geneva are currently under way.
Senior military figures from both Ukraine and Russia have attended the second three-way effort, along with the US, to end the war in Ukraine. These have largely stalled so far due to Russia’s insistence on keeping territory it has seized from Ukraine.
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![Displaced in Lebanon: ‘Lives turned upside down’Fatme A. is trying to maintain some semblance of a normal life in between the improvised tent shelters, stacked mattresses and all the other families sheltered close by.
She is staying in the Azarieh buildings, in the middle of Beirut’s commercial center — the buildings have become a shelter for hundreds of displaced Lebanese. Around 250 families are living here in makeshift tents. There’s water, a communal kitchen and goods distributed by aid organizations. But there’s not much space, let alone peace or privacy.
In early March, Fatme (right) and her family left their home in the Beirut suburbs under attack by IsraelImage: privat
Fatme spends most of her time inside her tent. She isn’t even that keen to go to the bathroom here. “You have to queue and everybody looks at you,” she confides. “I get embarrassed.”
That’s why she sits inside her cloth shelter, amid bags, blankets and the small number of personal belongings she was able to carry with her when she was forced to flee home.
She lives here together with her husband, their 7-year-old daughter and her mother, sharing what little space they have. Her husband, a carpenter, has been helping others in the building. He repairs, builds and organizes. “Because he is able to help, we managed to get two tents,” Fatme explains.
During the day she tries to carry on as usual. But the nights are more difficult. “The explosions are so loud,” she tells DW. “A lot of people here are afraid and sleep fully dressed.”
Conflict expanding in Lebanon
The Iran war arrived in Beirut some time ago, and lately it has moved from beyond what are recognized as conflict zones to other parts of the Lebanese capital.
Israel has expanded its targeting and has also started hitting areas that are beyond what are known as neighborhoods that support the Lebanese group, Hezbollah — that includes central city areas. Sometimes the Israeli attacks come without any warning.
Hezbollah has both a military and political wing, plays a major role in Lebanese society and politics and is opposed to Israel. The group, which is allied with Iran, is categorized as a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and a number of Sunni Muslim countries. Europe considers Hezbollah’s armed wing a terrorist organization.
At the same time that Israel is attacking from the air, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has also said a buffer zone will be set up inside southern Lebanon and that Israel will keep security control over it even when the Iran war ends.
Katz has said the area to be occupied by Israeli forces would go right up to the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (around 18 miles) from the Lebanese border with Israel. Katz also said all houses in Lebanese villages near the Israeli border would be destroyed.
In response, Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Menassa said Katz’s remarks showed Israel’s “clear intention to impose a new occupation of Lebanese territory, forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of citizens, and systematically destroy villages and towns in the south.”
A joint statement signed by the foreign ministers of 10 European countries, alongside the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, urged Israel to respect Lebanon’s territorial integrity.
‘Nowhere is safe’
But for Lebanese locals impacted by the Israeli invasion, those words bring no comfort. They feel there is nowhere safe for them at the moment.
“We fled [our homes] but we know that there’s nowhere that’s really safe. But there’s nothing more we can do,” Fatme explains.
Only a few weeks ago, Fatme and her family were living at home in Ouzai in the south of the city. It’s a dense, mixed-use neighborhood that belongs to the part of Beirut known as Dahiyeh.
‘Nowhere feels safe’: Beirut hit by ongoing Israeli strikesTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Dahiyeh — in Arabic, the word simply means “suburb” — is an area that is almost as big as central Beirut itself. Over the past few decades, Dahiyeh has grown thanks to migration and displacement. A lot of people have moved here simply because they couldn’t afford to live in other parts of the increasingly expensive city. Others arrived thanks to war, political crises or a lack of state support elsewhere.
For some outsiders and for Western observers, Dahiyeh is often only seen as a Hezbollah stronghold, a political and military space. But for the people who actually live there it is also a totally normal, often bustling area, filled with shops, restaurants and supermarkets. And above all, it is their home.
“We had a normal family life there,” Fatme recounts. “My daughter went to school, my husband worked as a carpenter and I ran the house. Our life was good there.” The family felt secure and stable, she adds.
No real ceasefire
But in late February the US and Israel began attacking Iran and killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hezbollah is supported by Iran and had pledged allegiance to Khamenei. At the beginning of March, the group joined the war, explicitly linking their participation to Khamenei’s assassination. They began firing rockets and drones into neighboring Israel and Israel has responded with aerial sorties. Since then, violence and fighting in Lebanon has only escalated.
Fatme’s family managed to get two tents inside buddings in central BeirutImage: privat
After fighting started, Fatme’s family got in their car and left. They managed to return to their home twice and stayed there for two nights. But it was clear things were getting more dangerous.
“We were just afraid,” Fatme says, explaining that they decided to leave again, mostly for their daughter’s sake.
“It took me five years to get pregnant,” Fatme continues, saying she was worried about losing her only child. “And my daughter is still suffering from the war in 2024. She is often afraid and scared to go anywhere alone. Whenever there’s any loud noise, she covers her ears.”
Even after the official ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was arranged in November 2024, there was still violence with continuous Israeli attacks, explosions and ever more insecurity.
According to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, and the Lebanese government itself, there were more than 15,400 ceasefire violations by Israeli forces, and more than 370 people killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon by February 2026 — that was despite the November ceasefire.
“The continuing Israeli attacks don’t just destroy houses and infrastructure; they erode the pillars of daily life and recovery,” Jeremy Ristord, head of programs in Lebanon for the group Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement in late February.
That was why Fatme’s daughter was still so scared. The explosions and frightening loud noises never stopped, nor did her fear. For Fatme’s family it was clear they had to leave. They packed only necessities. As they drove away, they still didn’t know where they were heading. They just left.
They ran into heavy traffic jams because other people in the area had had the same idea. At first the family slept in their car but then they managed to find some accommodation in the Azarieh buildings, which have been turned into accommodation for displaced locals.
“I really miss my own home,” Fatme says. “My life, my things, my routine. Just a month ago, everything looked so different. Our lives have been turned upside down.”
Even inside the buildings, Fatme’s daughter still gets scared at loud noises and cries a lot. When that happens, Fatme pulls her closer. “That’s when I forget my own fear and try to comfort her,” she says.
Uncertain future
It’s unlikely that things are going to get better any time soon. At a March 31 meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Tom Fletcher, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, said 1,240 people had been killed and a further 3,500 injured in Lebanon. That number included women, children and first responders.
At the same time, over 1.1 million people have been displaced, including hundreds of thousands of children.
“A cycle of coercive displacement is unfolding,” Fletcher warned. “Displacement is not a solution, but a painful last resort […] a temporary way to preserve dignity.”
During these difficult days there are still moments when Fatme can see some hope for the future, for instance, as she watches the children here playing. When her daughter is among them, relaxed, laughing and without a care even for a few minutes, Fatme feels positive. “When I see her playing, that’s when I think everything will be OK.”
But that feeling often doesn’t last long. The sound of Israeli drones over Beirut, the explosions in the distance — they all bring her back to the present and a view of what is left of their once happy lives: a family, two tents, a makeshift life.
“We are not the first, and we won’t be the last family that has had to flee,” Fatme says. “We’ve just got to hold on. And I just want the people out there to know this: That we had it good here, and that we lived with dignity.”
This article was originally written in German.
Israel strikes Hezbollah sites in BeirutTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
#Displaced #Lebanon #Lives #turned #upside](https://i2.wp.com/static.dw.com/image/76533511_6.jpg?ssl=1 "Displaced in Lebanon: ‘Lives turned upside down’Fatme A. is trying to maintain some semblance of a normal life in between the improvised tent shelters, stacked mattresses and all the other families sheltered close by.
She is staying in the Azarieh buildings, in the middle of Beirut’s commercial center — the buildings have become a shelter for hundreds of displaced Lebanese. Around 250 families are living here in makeshift tents. There’s water, a communal kitchen and goods distributed by aid organizations. But there’s not much space, let alone peace or privacy.
In early March, Fatme (right) and her family left their home in the Beirut suburbs under attack by IsraelImage: privat
Fatme spends most of her time inside her tent. She isn’t even that keen to go to the bathroom here. “You have to queue and everybody looks at you,” she confides. “I get embarrassed.”
That’s why she sits inside her cloth shelter, amid bags, blankets and the small number of personal belongings she was able to carry with her when she was forced to flee home.
She lives here together with her husband, their 7-year-old daughter and her mother, sharing what little space they have. Her husband, a carpenter, has been helping others in the building. He repairs, builds and organizes. “Because he is able to help, we managed to get two tents,” Fatme explains.
During the day she tries to carry on as usual. But the nights are more difficult. “The explosions are so loud,” she tells DW. “A lot of people here are afraid and sleep fully dressed.”
Conflict expanding in Lebanon
The Iran war arrived in Beirut some time ago, and lately it has moved from beyond what are recognized as conflict zones to other parts of the Lebanese capital.
Israel has expanded its targeting and has also started hitting areas that are beyond what are known as neighborhoods that support the Lebanese group, Hezbollah — that includes central city areas. Sometimes the Israeli attacks come without any warning.
Hezbollah has both a military and political wing, plays a major role in Lebanese society and politics and is opposed to Israel. The group, which is allied with Iran, is categorized as a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and a number of Sunni Muslim countries. Europe considers Hezbollah’s armed wing a terrorist organization.
At the same time that Israel is attacking from the air, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has also said a buffer zone will be set up inside southern Lebanon and that Israel will keep security control over it even when the Iran war ends.
Katz has said the area to be occupied by Israeli forces would go right up to the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (around 18 miles) from the Lebanese border with Israel. Katz also said all houses in Lebanese villages near the Israeli border would be destroyed.
In response, Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Menassa said Katz’s remarks showed Israel’s “clear intention to impose a new occupation of Lebanese territory, forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of citizens, and systematically destroy villages and towns in the south.”
A joint statement signed by the foreign ministers of 10 European countries, alongside the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, urged Israel to respect Lebanon’s territorial integrity.
‘Nowhere is safe’
But for Lebanese locals impacted by the Israeli invasion, those words bring no comfort. They feel there is nowhere safe for them at the moment.
“We fled [our homes] but we know that there’s nowhere that’s really safe. But there’s nothing more we can do,” Fatme explains.
Only a few weeks ago, Fatme and her family were living at home in Ouzai in the south of the city. It’s a dense, mixed-use neighborhood that belongs to the part of Beirut known as Dahiyeh.
‘Nowhere feels safe’: Beirut hit by ongoing Israeli strikesTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Dahiyeh — in Arabic, the word simply means “suburb” — is an area that is almost as big as central Beirut itself. Over the past few decades, Dahiyeh has grown thanks to migration and displacement. A lot of people have moved here simply because they couldn’t afford to live in other parts of the increasingly expensive city. Others arrived thanks to war, political crises or a lack of state support elsewhere.
For some outsiders and for Western observers, Dahiyeh is often only seen as a Hezbollah stronghold, a political and military space. But for the people who actually live there it is also a totally normal, often bustling area, filled with shops, restaurants and supermarkets. And above all, it is their home.
“We had a normal family life there,” Fatme recounts. “My daughter went to school, my husband worked as a carpenter and I ran the house. Our life was good there.” The family felt secure and stable, she adds.
No real ceasefire
But in late February the US and Israel began attacking Iran and killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hezbollah is supported by Iran and had pledged allegiance to Khamenei. At the beginning of March, the group joined the war, explicitly linking their participation to Khamenei’s assassination. They began firing rockets and drones into neighboring Israel and Israel has responded with aerial sorties. Since then, violence and fighting in Lebanon has only escalated.
Fatme’s family managed to get two tents inside buddings in central BeirutImage: privat
After fighting started, Fatme’s family got in their car and left. They managed to return to their home twice and stayed there for two nights. But it was clear things were getting more dangerous.
“We were just afraid,” Fatme says, explaining that they decided to leave again, mostly for their daughter’s sake.
“It took me five years to get pregnant,” Fatme continues, saying she was worried about losing her only child. “And my daughter is still suffering from the war in 2024. She is often afraid and scared to go anywhere alone. Whenever there’s any loud noise, she covers her ears.”
Even after the official ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was arranged in November 2024, there was still violence with continuous Israeli attacks, explosions and ever more insecurity.
According to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, and the Lebanese government itself, there were more than 15,400 ceasefire violations by Israeli forces, and more than 370 people killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon by February 2026 — that was despite the November ceasefire.
“The continuing Israeli attacks don’t just destroy houses and infrastructure; they erode the pillars of daily life and recovery,” Jeremy Ristord, head of programs in Lebanon for the group Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement in late February.
That was why Fatme’s daughter was still so scared. The explosions and frightening loud noises never stopped, nor did her fear. For Fatme’s family it was clear they had to leave. They packed only necessities. As they drove away, they still didn’t know where they were heading. They just left.
They ran into heavy traffic jams because other people in the area had had the same idea. At first the family slept in their car but then they managed to find some accommodation in the Azarieh buildings, which have been turned into accommodation for displaced locals.
“I really miss my own home,” Fatme says. “My life, my things, my routine. Just a month ago, everything looked so different. Our lives have been turned upside down.”
Even inside the buildings, Fatme’s daughter still gets scared at loud noises and cries a lot. When that happens, Fatme pulls her closer. “That’s when I forget my own fear and try to comfort her,” she says.
Uncertain future
It’s unlikely that things are going to get better any time soon. At a March 31 meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Tom Fletcher, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, said 1,240 people had been killed and a further 3,500 injured in Lebanon. That number included women, children and first responders.
At the same time, over 1.1 million people have been displaced, including hundreds of thousands of children.
“A cycle of coercive displacement is unfolding,” Fletcher warned. “Displacement is not a solution, but a painful last resort […] a temporary way to preserve dignity.”
During these difficult days there are still moments when Fatme can see some hope for the future, for instance, as she watches the children here playing. When her daughter is among them, relaxed, laughing and without a care even for a few minutes, Fatme feels positive. “When I see her playing, that’s when I think everything will be OK.”
But that feeling often doesn’t last long. The sound of Israeli drones over Beirut, the explosions in the distance — they all bring her back to the present and a view of what is left of their once happy lives: a family, two tents, a makeshift life.
“We are not the first, and we won’t be the last family that has had to flee,” Fatme says. “We’ve just got to hold on. And I just want the people out there to know this: That we had it good here, and that we lived with dignity.”
This article was originally written in German.
Israel strikes Hezbollah sites in BeirutTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
#Displaced #Lebanon #Lives #turned #upside")
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