Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia is ready to negotiate a settlement to the war following talks between US envoys and the Russian and Ukrainian leaderships.
Zelensky made the comments in an interview with US news outlet Axios after US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow and Kyiv over the weekend in Washington’s latest effort to break the diplomatic deadlock surrounding the conflict.
Witkoff said progress had been made during the meetings and raised the possibility of reviving three-way peace talks aimed at ending the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Zelensky said the United States was seeking to reduce tensions ahead of winter, when Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, disrupting electricity and heating supplies.
“The Russians are ready to negotiate,” Zelensky said, referring to what the US envoys told him after their separate meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
He said Russia believed the coming winter could weaken Ukraine, adding that US President Donald Trump could pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to de-escalate the conflict.
“Russia really thinks that this winter can help them to break us,” Zelensky told Axios.
Zelensky said the weekend discussions included US proposals concerning energy facilities, grain shipments and oil and gas exports, but declined to provide further details.
He said the US initiative was aimed at restarting negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and ensuring that the coming winter would be different from previous years.
The Ukrainian president said the objective was to make progress before or during winter and “bring the sides closer to peace.”
