Ukraine offers Russia new peace talks this week

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that Kyiv has sent Moscow an offer to hold another round of peace talks this week and that he wanted to speed up negotiations for a ceasefire.

Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul over the past five months. They have agreed to swap prisoners but made no breakthroughs in ending almost three and a half years of conflict that started with Russia’s 2022 invasion.

“Everything should be done to achieve a ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address to the nation. “The Russian side should stop hiding from decisions,” he added.

The president said Rustem Umerov, who headed the Ukrainian delegation at both talks in Istanbul, had sent the Russian side the offer to hold the meeting next week, but gave no more details.

Umerov, a former defense minister, was appointed last week as the head of the National Security and Defense Council and tasked with adding more momentum to the negotiations.

Russia has been pressing a grinding offensive along the eastern front in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. It has repeatedly said it is ready for a new round of talks but has not backed down from what Kyiv and its allies describe as its maximalist war aims.

President Donald Trump, who has sharpened his tone against Russia in recent weeks amid worsening air strikes on Ukrainian cities, threatened harsher sanctions on Russia this month if a peace deal was not reached within 50 days.

The Kremlin said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to move toward a peace settlement for Ukraine but that Moscow’s main objective is to achieve its goals.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television in a clip published on Sunday that the world was now accustomed to Trump’s sometimes “harsh” rhetoric but pointed out that Trump had also underscored in comments on Russia that he would continue to search for a peace deal.

“President Putin has repeatedly spoken of his desire to bring the Ukrainian settlement to a peaceful conclusion as soon as possible. This is a long process, it requires effort, and it is not easy,” Peskov said told state television reporter Pavel Zarubin.

“The main thing for us is to achieve our goals. Our goals are clear,” Peskov said.