The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, said he had invited American emissaries to Kiev to resume negotiations with Moscow on the conflict in Ukraine, suspended since the start of the war in the Middle East.
“I invited the North American delegation in charge of negotiations to Kiev. The delegation will do everything in its power, under current conditions, during the war with Iran, to come to Kiev”, declared the Ukrainian President, speaking to journalists.
“It is an alternative option for a trilateral meeting at the level of technical groups. The American group can come to us and, after visiting us, go to Moscow”, he added.
On March 20, Zelensky asked Washington for a concrete timetable for the next round of trilateral negotiations with Russia, suspended due to the war in the Middle East.
“We want clear dates — at least approximate ones,” Zelensky told journalists, acknowledging that the conflict in the Middle East has contributed to the postponement of the talks.
Negotiations between Kiev and Moscow, mediated by Washington, have been taking place in recent months, but a new round planned for Abu Dhabi was canceled indefinitely following the military escalation in the Middle East, triggered on February 28 by the large-scale offensive by the United States (USA) and Israel against Iran.
According to the Ukrainian head of state, the previous rounds allowed some progress, particularly in understanding mechanisms for monitoring a possible ceasefire.
“The three sides have essentially agreed on how to monitor the ceasefire as soon as there is political will. For now, there is no political will,” said Zelensky, recalling that Ukrainian envoys will meet on Saturday with American negotiators, forming part of the political dialogue group between the parties.
The Ukrainian President also warned of the risks of partially lifting United States sanctions on the Russian energy sector, classifying the measure as “dangerous”.
According to Zelensky, easing sanctions could translate into more revenue for Moscow and, consequently, greater military capacity on the ground.
Washington recently announced the temporary suspension of some sanctions on Russian oil, imposed after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the aim of containing the rise in energy prices in the context of the war in the Middle East.
On March 29, a Kremlin foreign policy advisor said that the United States had presented interesting ideas and proposals to resolve the war with Ukraine, without having been put into practice so far.
“The United States has presented several interesting, and I would even say useful, ideas and proposals, but so far they have not been implemented,” Kremlin advisor Yuri Ushakov told Russian public television, quoted by the EFE news agency.
In the published interview, Ushakov said that Moscow called on Washington to put pressure on Kiev to accept implementing US proposals.
Specifically, he referred to the agreements reached between the presidents of Russia and the United States in Alaska in 2025, to argue that their implementation is “what is needed now”.
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