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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that Russia has expressed readiness to negotiate an end to the war, according to United States news outlet Axios.
The comments followed a weekend visit to Moscow and Kyiv by United States envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as Washington seeks to revive diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Witkoff said the meetings had made progress and raised the possibility of restarting three-way peace talks involving the United States, Russia and Ukraine.
Zelensky told Axios that the United States was pushing to de-escalate the conflict ahead of the long winter.
Russia has struck Ukraine’s energy grid each winter since invading in February 2022, cutting power and heating to millions in temperatures as low as -20C.
According to Zelensky, the US envoys, who held separate meetings with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, told him that Moscow was prepared to negotiate.
He also said Russia appeared to believe the winter could put additional pressure on Ukraine, but argued that the Trump administration could encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to reduce the intensity of the conflict.
“Russia really thinks that this winter can help them to break us,” he told Axios.
Zelensky said Putin did not want to create tensions with US President Donald Trump.
The Ukrainian president said the weekend discussions included US proposals concerning energy facilities, grain shipments and oil and gas exports, but he did not disclose further details.
He said the US approach was aimed at restarting negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and preventing the coming winter from repeating the difficulties of previous years.
Zelensky said the broader objective was to make progress before or during the winter and bring the two sides closer to peace.
