The Ukrainian president said the United States has also proposed new tripartite talks in Miami, and that Ukraine would also attend.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the United States had given Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach an agreement to end the nearly four-year war.
“The United States has proposed to the parties to end the war by the beginning of this summer and will probably put pressure on the parties to comply with this schedule,” Zelensky told reporters in Kiev on Friday, who was not allowed to comment until Saturday.
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He added that President Donald Trump’s administration is insisting on a clear timeline for all events and has proposed holding the next tripartite talks next week in the United States, possibly in Miami. Ukraine confirmed its participation.
When President Trump first took office, he boasted that he would end the war within 24 hours. But more than 12 months later, no peace deal has been reached, and critics have accused Trump of being manipulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin into favoring the Kremlin’s war narrative and extremist demands.
The new deadline will be set after trilateral talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi, mediated by the United States. Little progress has been made in these talks, with both sides sticking to opposing demands. The Kremlin has called on Ukraine to withdraw from the heavily industrialized eastern Donbas region of Donetsk and Luhansk, where the heaviest fighting continues. Kiev categorically rejected this condition. In addition, Ukraine’s constitution prohibits the cession of eastern territories requested by Russia.
However, both countries agreed to hand over 157 prisoners each, and Ukrainian and U.S. officials, as well as the Russian Defense Ministry, confirmed on February 5 that the exchange had taken place. President Zelensky added on Saturday that prisoner exchanges with Russia would continue under the agreement.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who led the U.S. mediation team with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, said Thursday that while “significant work remains” in peace talks, the prisoner exchange showed “sustained diplomatic engagement is yielding tangible results and moving efforts to end the war in Ukraine forward.”
U.S. officials have not said what action they will take if the deadline is not met.
“Russia attacks Ukraine’s energy sector with drones and missiles”
The two countries are already at the negotiating table, but Kiev insists Russia continues to prioritize war.
President Zelenskiy said Saturday that Russia launched “more than 400 drones and about 40 missiles” overnight targeting Ukraine’s energy sector.
He said Russia could choose true diplomacy every day, but instead continues to launch new attacks.
“It is extremely important that all supporters of tripartite negotiations comply,” he said in a post on X. “Moscow should be stripped of its ability to use the cold as leverage against Ukraine.”
Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev told state media on Thursday that negotiations were moving in a “good, positive direction.”
Earlier this week, Ukrainian officials announced that Russia had attacked energy infrastructure 217 times this year. Ukraine’s Energy Minister Denis Shmyhal said 200 emergency workers were working to restore power to 1,100 buildings in Kiev alone.
Since mid-January, Russia has targeted power plants, gas pipelines and transmission cables, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without heat or electricity in various locations.
On January 29, President Trump said that President Putin had agreed to a one-week suspension of energy infrastructure strikes during frigid weather conditions, a statement also confirmed by the Kremlin. Nevertheless, on February 3, Russia launched its largest offensive against Kiev and Kharkov, deploying 71 missiles and 450 drones.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yury Ifnat said only 38 missiles were shot down, many of them ballistic missiles. Russia claimed it was targeting defense companies and their energy supplies as well as drone storage sites.
