President Trump meets with President Zelensky and talks with President Putin regarding Ukraine issue
President Donald Trump welcomed Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy and said he believed a peace deal in Ukraine was coming together.
KYIV – The United States hopes Moscow and Kiev will find a solution on how to end the war in Ukraine by the summer, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
In remarks to reporters released by his office on February 7, after two days of US-mediated talks between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi this week, Zelensky said the US had proposed talks in Miami within a week, and Kiev had agreed.
President Zelensky also criticized Russia for nighttime attacks on energy facilities in Ukraine and said in comments posted on X that Russia should be stripped of its ability to use the winter cold as a lever in the fight against Kiev.
“The United States has proposed that the parties end the war before the start of this summer and is likely to put pressure on the parties to adhere to this schedule,” Zelenskiy said.
“The[Mid-America Congress]elections in November are definitely more important to them. Don’t be naive. And they say they want to get everything done by June,” he said.
Reuters earlier reported, citing sources, that U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators had discussed ways to secure a quick deal.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine proposed a sequencing plan but did not provide specific details.
Talks in Abu Dhabi this week ended without much progress, but Russia and Ukraine each agreed to exchange 157 prisoners, resuming exchanges after a five-month hiatus. President Zelenskiy said the prisoner exchange would continue.
Zelenskiy says security is key
On February 7, President Zelensky met with the negotiating team in Kiev, posted a video of the meeting, and said he hoped for further progress.
“Ukraine needs results, and one of the most important foundations for achieving lasting peace is effective security,” he said.
Zelensky said Washington had called on Kiev and Moscow to agree to a new ceasefire targeting attacks on energy infrastructure as a de-escalation measure during the talks.
US President Donald Trump said last week that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to a one-week ceasefire. Russia halted its attacks on Ukraine’s power sector for several days, but began a new round of heavy attacks on February 3.
President Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to stop attacks on Russian oil facilities and other energy infrastructure. Moscow has not yet agreed.
Zelenskiy said that in the latest Russian attack, the Russian government launched more than 400 drones and about 40 missiles, targeting Ukraine’s power grid, power generation facilities and distribution substations.
“They (Russians) are making us live in inhuman conditions,” Oksana Kichtenko, 42, said at the Kiev metro station where she and her 10-year-old son were sleeping. “I sleep in the subway without heat or electricity.”
More than 1,000 apartment buildings in the capital are without heating in the bitter cold.
“Every day Russia could choose real diplomacy, but it chooses new attacks,” Zelenskiy said. “Moscow should be stripped of its ability to leverage cold against Ukraine.”
Ukrainian military and security officials said Kiev attacked an oil depot in Russia’s Saratov region and a factory manufacturing missile fuel components in Russia’s western Tver region.
Military teams discuss details of possible ceasefire
Zelenskiy said the military team discussed in detail the technical aspects of how to monitor a possible ceasefire.
Also discussed were agreements on Ukraine’s security and economic cooperation, which officials called a “prosperity plan” outlining Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction.
President Zelenskiy said there was a report from Ukrainian intelligence about talks in which Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev proposed a U.S.-Russia cooperation deal worth $12 trillion. He said such an agreement between Russia and the United States should not violate Ukraine’s constitution.
President Zelensky said that Ukraine and Russia remain territorially far apart. He said the United States has proposed a free economic zone in the Donetsk region, but neither Ukraine nor Russia are thrilled with the idea.
Ukraine said it would not withdraw from territory it still holds in the Donetsk region.
(Additional reporting by Yuri Kovalenko; Writing by Olena Harmash; Editing by William Mallard, Timothy Heritage and Toby Chopra)
