Kyiv, Feb 7: The US has given Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach a deal to end the nearly four-year war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters, as Russian strikes on energy infrastructure forced nuclear power plants to cut output on Saturday.
If the June deadline is not met, the Trump administration will likely put pressure on both sides to meet it, he added.
“The Americans are proposing the parties end the war by the beginning of this summer and will probably put pressure on the parties precisely according to this schedule,” Zelenskyy said, speaking to reporters on Friday. Zelenskyy’s comments were embargoed until Saturday morning.
“And they say that they want to do everything by June. And they will do everything to end the war. And they want a clear schedule of all events,” he said.
He said the US proposed holding the next round of trilateral talks next week in their country for the first time, likely in Miami, Zelenskyy said. “We confirmed our participation,” he added.
Zelenskyy said Russia presented the US with a USD 12 trillion economic proposal – which he dubbed the “Dmitriev package” after Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Bilateral economic deals with the US form part of the broader negotiating process.
Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure continued with over 400 drones and about 40 missiles launched overnight Saturday, Zelenskyy said in a post on X. Targets included the energy grid, generation facilities and distribution networks.
The latest deadline follows US-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi that produced no breakthrough as the warring parties cling to mutually exclusive demands. Russia is pressing Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas, where fighting remains intense–- a condition Kyiv says it will never accept.
“Difficult issues remained difficult. Ukraine once again confirmed its positions on the Donbas issue. We stand where we stand’ is the fairest and most reliable model for a ceasefire today, in our opinion,” Zelenskyy said. He reiterated that the most challenging topics would be reserved for a trilateral meeting between leaders.
Zelenskyy said no common ground was reached on managing the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and expressed scepticism about a US proposal to turn the Donbas region, coveted by Russia, into a free economic zone as a compromise.
“I do not know whether this can be implemented, because when we talked about a free economic zone, we had different views on it,” he said.
He said in the last round of talks, the negotiators discussed how a ceasefire would be technically monitored. He added that the US has reaffirmed it would play a role in that process.
Zelenskyy said the US again proposed a ceasefire banning strikes on energy infrastructure.
Ukraine is ready to observe such a pause if Russia commits, but he added that when Moscow previously agreed to a one-week pause suggested by the US, it was violated after just four days. (AP)
