Zelensky said Washington has set a firm deadline to end the conflict and is ready to apply pressure on both sides if it is not met….reports Asian Lite News
The United States has given Ukraine and Russia until June to reach an agreement to end the nearly four-year-old war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, according to Arab News.
Zelensky told reporters that Washington has proposed a clear deadline for ending the conflict and is prepared to pressure both sides if the timeline is not met, Arab News reported. His remarks were made on Friday but were embargoed until Saturday.
“The Americans are proposing that the parties end the war by the beginning of this summer and will probably put pressure on the parties precisely according to this schedule,” Zelensky said, as quoted by Arab News. He added that the US wants all key steps completed by June and is seeking a clearly defined timetable.
According to Arab News, Zelensky said the US has suggested holding the next round of trilateral talks next week on American soil for the first time, possibly in Miami. Ukraine has confirmed its participation.
The Ukrainian president also revealed that Russia has presented the US with a sweeping economic proposal valued at around $12 trillion, which he referred to as the “Dmitriev package” after Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, Arab News reported. He said possible bilateral economic arrangements between Moscow and Washington are being discussed as part of the wider negotiating process.
Meanwhile, Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure continued overnight into Saturday, Arab News reported. Zelensky said more than 400 drones and around 40 missiles were launched, targeting power grids, generation facilities and distribution networks across the country.
Ukraine’s state electricity transmission operator Ukrenergo said the attack was the second mass strike on energy infrastructure since the start of the year, according to Arab News. Eight facilities across eight regions were hit, forcing nuclear power plants to reduce output.
“As a result of missile strikes on key high-voltage substations that ensured the output of nuclear power units, all nuclear power plants in the territories under control were forced to reduce their load,” Ukrenergo said in a statement quoted by Arab News.
The company said the attacks significantly increased the power deficit, leading to the extension of rolling power outages across all regions.
The June deadline follows US-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi that failed to produce a breakthrough, Arab News reported. Russia continues to demand that Ukraine withdraw from the Donbas region, where fighting remains intense — a condition Kyiv has repeatedly rejected.
“Difficult issues remained difficult,” Zelensky said, reiterating Ukraine’s stance on the Donbas. “‘We stand where we stand’ is the fairest and most reliable model for a ceasefire today,” he said, according to Arab News.
Zelensky said no agreement was reached on the management of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and expressed skepticism over a US proposal to turn the Donbas into a free economic zone as a compromise, Arab News reported.
“I do not know whether this can be implemented, because we had different views on it,” he said.
He added that discussions also focused on technical mechanisms for monitoring a ceasefire, with the US reaffirming its role. Washington has again proposed a ceasefire banning strikes on energy infrastructure, Zelensky said, but noted that Russia violated a previous US-backed pause after just four days, Arab News reported.
