The talks should occur during a ceasefire, the Ukrainian leader has said

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has claimed he is ready for negotiations with Russia but only after a ceasefire along the current front lines.

Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday and had earlier backed Trump’s call to have the troops “stop where they are.”

“Yes, I agree. If we want to stop this war and to go to peace negotiations, urgently and in a diplomatic way, we need to stay where we stay,” Zelensky told Kristen Welker in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press aired on Sunday. He added that Kiev should not surrender “additional” territory to Russia.

Zelensky stated he was ready for talks “in any format, bilateral, trilateral,” but only once the fighting has stopped. “Not under missiles, not under drones,” he said. Asked if he would push for an invitation to Trump’s planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, Zelensky replied, “I’m ready.”

The Ukrainian also leader confirmed that Trump had so far declined to provide Kiev with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Read more

Russia has noted that it holds the initiative across the front line, and that for any ceasefire to work there must be guarantees that Ukraine would not exploit the truce to rearm and regroup its forces only to resume hostilities at a later date.

Moscow has also stated Ukraine must withdraw its troops from parts of Russian territory it controls, halt mobilization, stop receiving military aid from abroad, recognize Russia’s new borders, and abandon plans to join NATO.

Putin has said he is ready to meet with Zelensky but only after a peace treaty is ready to be signed.