Marco Rubio says the US and Ukraine delegations in Geneva have made a “tremendous amount of progress” on peace talks. It comes after Europe worked up counter proposals to a US-Russia plan that caused alarm in Kyiv, the West and even among some US officials.
Monday 24 November 2025 06:09, UK
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
That’s all for now of our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
We’ll sum up the top lines here, but scroll down to catch up in more detail.
‘Tremendous progress’
US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who headed up the US delegation in Geneva today, was optimistic after talks with Ukraine.
He said that the US was making “some changes” to its peace plan after talks with Ukraine in his first appearance.
Later, not only did he hail “a tremendous amount of progress”, he added: “I don’t want to declare victory or finality here. There’s still some work to be done, but we are much further ahead today at this time than we were when we began this morning and where we were a week ago for certain.”
Despite his optimism, he didn’t offer much in the way of specifics when asked by reporters.
We expect talks to continue, it’s just not sure whether they will carry on in Geneva and who will be taking part.
Watch: Rubio ‘very optimistic’ about peace deal
Europe counters
Europe was left scrambling after the draft US-Russia peace plan was published.
But Kyiv’s allies came up with a counter proposal.
In these, a few top lines stood out:
‘NO GRATITUDE’
All these developments came after Donald Trump took to social media to criticise Ukraine’s leadership.
He claimed it showed “ZERO GRATITUDE” to the US – something we first heard back in February when he publicly berated Zelenskyy.
‘Diplomacy has been reinvigorated’
Speaking of the Ukrainian leader, while not present at the talks, he was being kept updated and posted repeatedly on social media through today.
“Diplomacy has been reinvigorated – and this is good,” Zelenskyy said.
In another post he added: “It is important that there is dialogue with the American representatives, and there are signals that President Trump’s team is listening to us.”
Ukraine will be hoping that the US president keeps on listening.
Over the past 24 hours, the hastily arranged summit in Geneva has seen representatives from the US, Europe and Ukraine descend on the Swiss city.
They have held a series of meetings trying to coordinate progress on a possible peace plan.
Hanging over it all is (another) Donald Trump-imposed deadline.
Here are some of the meetings that have taken place:
Last night, army secretary Dan Driscoll held several meetings with a Ukrainian delegation in Geneva, our US partner NBC News understands.
A US official tells them these talks were “good”.
Then, this morning, NBC reports that three of the most senior members of the US delegation (Rubio, Driscoll and Witkoff) held coordination meetings at the InterContinental Hotel.
Most of these discussions were unilateral.
Around lunchtime, still at the InterContinental Hotel, Rubio and Discroll also met with European officials, our Europe producer Simone Baglivo understands.
Next up, the US then met with the Ukrainian delegation at the US Mission in Geneva (see our 16.52 post for the outcome of that).
Both sides described these as “constructive”.
It was after these we heard from Marco Rubio and Andrii Yermak.
Heading through this afternoon and evening, more formal talks were ongoing between Ukraine and the US.
A US official tells NBC that the afternoon talks were “detailed discussions about the peace agreement,” adding:
“It was productive and even conclusive in some areas. There’s a formal meeting between the two delegations where they will be ironing out the details of the agreement.”
Then (perhaps today’s final meeting), the delegations from Washington and Kyiv enjoyed dinner at an Italian restaurant (see our 21.04 post for more).
While it is expected that talks will continue tomorrow, it isn’t clear who will be taking part in it.
By John Sparks, international correspondent
We’ve witnessed a day of determined and decidedly frantic diplomacy in this well-heeled city.
Camera crews were perched on street corners and long convoys of black vehicles swept down Geneva’s throughfares as the Ukrainians worked hard to keep the Americans on side.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio did not want to go into details at a press ‘gaggle’ held at the US Mission this evening, but he seemed to think they had made more progress in the last 96 hours than the previous 10 months combined.
The Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy also seemed satisfied enough, posting on Telegram that there were “signals President Trump’s team is hearing us” after a day of “numerous meetings and negotiations.”
That said, we are a long way from the finish line here – something Rubio acknowledged when he said that any proposal agreed here would have to be handed over to the Russians.
At that point, negotiations to stop the war would surely get tougher.
President Putin has shown little or no inclination to stop the conflict thus far.
This, then, is the most important reason the Ukrainians seem determined to keep the Americans on side.
While President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wasn’t present at talks today, he was said to be in touch with his team and posted about the peace efforts on social media throughout the day.
In his nightly address, the Ukrainian leader says there are signs that “President Trump’s team hears us.”
It comes as US secretary of state Marco Rubio hailed “productive” peace talks with Ukraine in Geneva (see our 19.39 post for more).
Also, it comes after Trump’s post on social media claiming Ukraine’s leadership had expressed “ZERO GRATITUDE”.
‘A day of many meetings’
Zelenskyy describes today as “a day of many meetings and negotiations.”
He says that “a lot is changing”, but repeats Kyiv’s long-held line that it will never be an obstruction to peace.
Read his full post below…
Three people have been killed in a “massive” Russian drone attack on Kharkiv.
Several others were also injured, including children, in Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to local officials.
Kharkiv’s mayor Ihor Terekhov says in a post on Telegram that there were 15 strikes on the city, across six locations.
Kharkiv is located 18 miles (30km) from the Russian border and has withstood Russian attempts to capture it so far.
According to Reuters news agency, US and Ukrainian officials are discussing a potential visit for Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington.
This could take place as early as this week to discuss the peace plan with Trump himself, it adds.
Citing two sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reports that the main idea would be for Trump and Zelenskyy to discuss the most sensitive matters (such as territory) directly.
So far, there is no confirmed date.
During his second briefing with reporters earlier, Marco Rubio said some of the holdups were because of the need for “higher-level” decisions.
Our team in Europe has seen the US and Ukraine delegations eating together at the Four Seasons Hotel in Geneva after today’s discussions.
It could be a sign of talks having gone well, with Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff among those present.
Our Europe producer Simone Baglivo saw the US convoy arrive at the hotel with police clearing the area beforehand.
They took the side entrance into the Il Lago Italian restaurant, with Secret Service deployed in the area.
Shortly after, the Ukrainian team also arrived and briefly spoke with the US officials before the curtains were drawn.
It’s been a busy evening with ongoing peace talks in Geneva.
We’ve heard from US secretary of state Marco Rubio and head of Ukraine’s presidential office Andrii Yermak, as well as seen European counter proposals to a US-Russia peace plan.
While we’ll continue to bring you updates, here’s what you need to know in five bullet points:
Our international correspondent John Sparks offers his analysis after Marco Rubio’s second update of the evening.
He says that while the US secretary of state was optimistic about the talks, he offered little actual detail about the progress being supposedly made.
Watch his latest analysis here…
Marco Rubio, in the last half an hour, gave us a second update of the evening on peace plan talks with Ukraine in Geneva.
Check our previous post for the toplines and here’s a summary of what else he said:
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free