Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that the United States wants to broker a new round of talks with Ukraine and Russia on ending the four-and-a-half-year war and hold it by the end of October.
– The US-led peace efforts have been largely stalled with Washington’s attention shifted to its war with Iran and as Ukraine says Russia has ramped up its aerial attacks across the war-torn country.
– “The American side is currently in contact with Ukraine and Russia and is proposing to somehow hold a meeting at the technical level in a trilateral format by the end of October,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Sunday.
– He said he had spoken with the American negotiators on Saturday.
– “I confirmed to them that our side is ready to support this timeline,” he added.
– Zelenskyy did not say where the talks would take place but said Ukraine was “open to the Emirates or another country proposed by the American side.”
– The United Arab Emirates had in the past hosted talks mediated by the United States aimed at ending the Russian invasion.
– The Kremlin said last month that three-way talks on ending the war could take place in October.
– “We do not rule out such a possibility; we are talking about the foreseeable future,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted at the time as saying by Russia’s Ria and Tass news agencies.
– Previous rounds of talks have failed to yield tangible progress towards peace, with Moscow unwilling to drop its maximalist conditions to end the fighting.