Oliver Conway

Our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams is in Kiev.

So after two days of talks in Geneva, what's been achieved?

You get the impression that in some ways things are moving forward.

That was the message after the previous round in Abu Dhabi when Ukrainian officials were emphasising that in terms of the sort of military to military conversations, progress was being made.

And you get exactly the same impression now, that when the two militaries get together and talk about the mechanics of figuring out the line of contact, how a ceasefire might be implemented and so forth, then there is genuine progress.

But, of course, none of that really amounts to anything until there's a political commitment by both sides to do a deal.

And at the moment, the Ukrainian view is that we simply haven't seen that from Vladimir Putin yet.

and that he remains, as he has been all along, committed to a version of a peace with Ukraine, which essentially amounts to Ukraine's capitulation.

I think the mood was summed up quite well by a Ukrainian official who was in Geneva, who was asked about how the talks had gone and said they were difficult, but they were productive unless you have super hyped expectations.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

super hyped expectations that the fighting might stop.

So I guess the fighting is going to continue until something changes.

Yes.

And of course, there nothing much does change because that contact line has been changing very, very, very slowly.

I mean, it's a glacial move forward by the Russian side, really, for the last couple of years.

Interestingly, there has been a development in the last couple of weeks that

which some Ukrainians are getting quite excited about.

And that is because of a decision by Elon Musk's SpaceX Corporation to deny access to the Starlink satellite internet terminals for Russian troops, essentially switching off the entire system and then switching back on only according to a list of units approved by the Ukrainian military.

The effect of that has been that

Significant bits of Russia's front line where the Starlink terminal was playing quite an important role in terms of targeting and coordinating movements.