Putin suggests he’s open to Ukraine ceasefire talks with Zelenskyy
Although he did not address Putin’s comments directly, Zelenskyy said late Monday that Ukraine “was ready for any conversation” about a ceasefire that would halt strikes on civilians. “Nevertheless, Ukraine stands by its offer — at the very least, not to strike civilian infrastructure,” he added.
There have been no direct talks between the two sides about ending the conflict, but both countries are coming under increasing pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration to bring an end to the conflict. Trump, who will mark 100 days in office next week, promised to end the war on his first day.
And Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested Friday that the U.S. may be ready to “move on” unless progress was made on a peace deal.
“We’re not going to continue with this endeavor for weeks and months on end,” he said after meeting with Ukrainian and European officials in Paris.
Zelenskyy will again hold more meetings with senior American and European officials in London this week.
The senior U.S. official said the upcoming round of talks were “critically important.” They added that Ukraine and Europe are expected to present their response to a “terms sheet” that was presented to them by Rubio and Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg, in the French capital.
They said that Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week, but little came out of the call. They added there will be no “meetings for meetings sake” unless there are clear signs that progress was quickly achievable.
Their comments came after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary Easter ceasefire in Ukraine over the weekend citing humanitarian reasons.
However, both sides breached the truce after Russia targeted the country with a fresh round of strikes. Ukrainian troops later fired on Russia.
Zelenskyy in his overnight address on Monday said the talks in London “have a primary task: to push for an unconditional ceasefire. This must be the starting point.”
But his country faces substantial hurdles in achieving real and lasting peace, given Putin’s long held maximalist demands for ending the war, which would require Kyiv to cede all the land occupied by Russia and accept permanent neutrality.
Ukraine in the past has stated that doing so would amount to surrender and leave the country vulnerable to attacks by Moscow in the future.
Trump himself struck a more optimistic note on Sunday, saying in a post on Truth Social that the two sides would “hopefully” make a deal “this week.”
