Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Russia showed readiness to negotiate towards a conflict settlement at talks with US envoys, Axios reported.
The weekend visit to Moscow and Kyiv by Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner marks Washington’s latest bid to break a diplomatic stalemate in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago.
Witkoff touted progress in the meetings and raised the prospect of reviving three-way peace talks to end the war.
Zelensky told US news outlet Axios that the United States was pushing to de-escalate the conflict ahead of the long winter.
Russia has struck Ukraine’s energy grid each winter since invading in February 2022, cutting power and heating to millions in temperatures as low as -20C.
Zelensky said the US envoys—who held separate talks with the Ukrainian and Russian leaders — told him that “the Russians are ready to negotiate.”
“Russia really thinks that this winter can help them to break us,” he told Axios.
But the administration of US President Donald Trump could pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to de-escalate, he added, and Putin “doesn’t want” to “upset” his US counterpart.
Zelensky said the weekend talks included US proposals around energy facilities, grain shipments and oil and gas exports but declined to give further details.
The Ukrainian leader said the US approach aimed to resume negotiations between the warring countries and ensure the coming winter was different from previous ones.
The goal was to make progress before or during winter to “bring (the) sides closer to the peace,” Zelensky said.
