Representatives of Moscow and Washington have been meeting in Switzerland over the past few months for unofficial talks on the war in Ukraine, including last week during the Munich Conference, reported Reuters three sources. According to two sources, although the participants have diplomatic and security experience, they are not government officials. The agenda of these talks is not entirely clear, nor is it clear whether Ukrainian representatives were present at the meetings. However, the agency's interlocutors reported that some contacts occurred during the transitional period after Donald Trump's election victory and part of his team is aware of these talks.
One of the sources described the talks in Switzerland as an unofficial dialogue aimed at improving communication and exchanging ideas, rather than developing specific proposals.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry stated that meetings between parties involved in the conflict in Ukraine are regularly held in Switzerland, adding that it was informed about these meetings.
Last year, Reuters reported on separate unofficial talks in 2023 and early 2024, when Putin signaled that he was willing to consider a ceasefire in Ukraine. These talks, as it turned out, led to nothing. In 2023, NBC reported that former US national security officials held secret talks with Russians considered close to the Kremlin, and some of them eventually met with Lavrov, the foreign minister.
Trump, having been in office for only a month, changed the US approach to the three-year conflict in Ukraine by initiating direct talks with Vladimir Putin and insisting on the swift conclusion of a peace agreement.