US and Ukrainian officials have met in Geneva to discuss advancing efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, just as Moscow signalled it was in no hurry to sign a deal.
US President Donald Trump is pushing for an end to Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II, but has so far failed to broker any deal between Moscow and Kiev.
Previous rounds of US-led negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Geneva and Abu Dhabi have failed to yield a compromise, including on the key sticking point of territory.
Russia, which has signalled it will not budge on its demands for full control of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, said Thursday it was too early to make forecasts about when a deal would take place.
"Have you heard anything from us about deadlines? We have no deadlines; we have tasks. We are getting them done," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told state media.
Kiev says the only way of breaking the deadlock is a leaders' meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and that it aims to lay the ground for such a summit during talks on Thursday.
"Today in Geneva, we continue our work within the framework of the negotiation process. A bilateral meeting with the American delegation has begun with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner," Ukraine's lead negotiator Rustem Umerov said.
Ukraine aims to "synchronise positions" with the United States ahead of fresh trilateral talks in March, he added.
Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev plans to be in Geneva on Thursday, though there is no indication he plans to meet the Ukrainian side, according to Russian state media.
"Dmitriev plans to arrive in Geneva on Thursday to pursue negotiations with the Americans on economic issues," Russia's TASS news agency cited an unnamed source as saying.
