Ukraine ready for direct talks with Russia only after ceasefire - Zelensky

KYIV, Ukraine

Ukraine will only hold direct talks with Russia once a ceasefire is in place, its President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, as his US counterpart Donald Trump pushed for a speedy deal to end the three-year Ukraine conflict.

“After the ceasefire, we are ready to sit down in any format,” Zelensky told journalists at a briefing a day before key talks in London on a potential Ukraine settlement.

Trump, who promised on the campaign trail to strike a deal between Moscow and Kyiv in 24 hours, has failed since his return to office three months ago to wrangle concessions from Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt his troops’ offensive in Ukraine.

Trump said over the weekend that he hoped a peace deal could be struck “this week” despite no signs the two sides were anywhere close to agreeing even a ceasefire, let alone a wider long-term settlement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned Tuesday against rushing into a speedy ceasefire, telling a state TV reporter that the issue was too “complex” for a quick fix.

“It is not worth setting any rigid time frames and trying to get a settlement, a viable settlement, in a short time frame,” he said.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov meanwhile told state media that US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff was expected this week in Moscow, his fourth visit to Russia since Trump took office.

Moscow’s forces occupy around a fifth of Ukrainian territory and tens of thousands of people have been killed since the war started in February 2022.

After rejecting a US-Ukrainian offer for a full and unconditional ceasefire last month, Putin announced a surprise Easter truce over the weekend.

Fighting dipped during the 30-hour period but Russia launched fresh attacks on residential areas on Monday and Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.

Kyiv and its allies dismissed the truce as a public relations exercise from Putin.

“The Easter truce that he announced somewhat unexpectedly was a marketing operation, a charm operation aimed at preventing President Trump from becoming impatient and angry,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told FranceInfo radio.

Ukraine’s allies will meet in London on Wednesday, a senior Kyiv official told AFP.

They are expected to discuss the contours of a possible deal they could all get behind.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend the London talks due to scheduling issues, a State Department spokeswoman said, adding that US envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg would take part.

European leaders are scrambling to work out how to support Ukraine should Trump pull Washington’s vital military and financial backing.

Zelensky said his team’s “first priority” at the London talks would be “an unconditional ceasefire.”

He proposed to Russia on Sunday a halt of missile and drones strikes against civilian facilities for at least 30 days.

While saying he would “analyze” the idea, Putin threw doubt on it 24 hours later by accusing Kyiv of using civilian facilities for military purposes.

He held open the prospect of bilateral talks on the topic, though the Kremlin said there were no fixed plans to engage with Kyiv.

“There are no concrete plans (to talk), there is readiness from Putin to discuss this question,” Peskov said Tuesday.

“If we are talking about civilian infrastructure, then we need to understand, when is it civilian infrastructure and when is it a military target,” he added.

Russia hit a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Myrnograd with drones Tuesday, killing three people and wounding two, local authorities said.

One person was reported dead and 23 wounded after two guided aerial bombs pounded the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, the region’s governor said.

Photos from Ukraine’s emergency services showed the outer walls of an apartment block blown open and a bloodied man tended to by medics on a stretcher, with bandages around his head and arms.

“One guided aerial bomb hit an infrastructure facility, another one hit a densely populated neighborhood, a residential building directly,” Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram.

Russian strikes wounded another six in the southern city of Kherson and seven in Kharkiv in the northeast, officials said.

The Russian army meanwhile claimed to have captured a village in the eastern Donetsk region, where its troops are advancing.

Russia has pressed on with a grinding advance in recent months in southern and eastern Ukraine and recaptured much of Russia’s Kursk region, parts of which Kyiv seized last year and was hoping to use as a bargaining chip.

There were no ongoing discussions on any new US aid packages with the Trump administration, Zelensky said.

In Paris last week, Rubio presented Washington’s plan for ending the conflict, though both he and Trump warned that Washington’s patience was wearing thin and could lead it to withdraw.

Many in Ukraine fear any US-brokered settlement would benefit Russia.