Ukraine’s Zelensky says US talks ‘positive’, Russian response to truce offer was strikes

KYIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised Russia for answering his offer of an Easter truce with airstrikes on April 1 but he praised as “positive” fresh talks with US mediators aimed at resolving the four-year conflict.

Mr Zelensky held talks remotely on April 1 with US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Mr Jared Kushner - President Donald Trump’s son-in-law - and US Senator Lindsey Graham as part of ongoing US efforts to negotiate an end to Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also joined the call, amid ongoing tensions between Washington and some of its partners in the military alliance.

In his nightly video address after the call, Mr Zelensky thanked America for its efforts to bring peace and said the Ukrainian and US teams had agreed to strengthen a document outlining US security guarantees for any future peace deal.

“This is precisely what could pave the way for a reliable end to the war,” Mr Zelensky said.

In recent weeks, Mr Zelensky has said the US was pressuring Ukraine to make concessions to bring a quick end to the conflict, which has fallen well below Iran in Washington’s priorities since the US and Israel launched attacks on Tehran in late February.

Talks with Russia are deadlocked over the vital question of land, with Ukraine refusing to cede to Russian demands that it relinquish the remaining parts of the eastern, industrialised region of Donbas that Russia has been unable to conquer.

Mr Zelensky said he spoke to US negotiators about his offer of an Easter ceasefire to the Russian side.

Easter, according to the Orthodox Christian calendar, the dominant faith in Ukraine and Russia, falls on April 12 this year.

Russia’s foreign ministry on April 1 publicly rejected the proposal as a “PR stunt.”

Mr Zelensky said Russian forces fired more than 700 drones, many of them Iranian-designed “Shaheds,” on April 1, when parts of western and central Ukraine were targeted in a rare daytime attack.

“Russia is responding with ‘Shahed drones’ and continues its terrorist operations against our energy sector, against our infrastructure,” Mr Zelensky said, adding he had discussed with US negotiators ways of advancing diplomacy.

“Other signals are needed, and a silence over Easter could be exactly the signal that tells everyone that diplomacy can be successful.”

Security guarantees

Mr Zelensky said in an earlier Telegram post that he had also spoken with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on April 1 and briefed him on his ceasefire proposal as well as the status of the battlefield, where the Ukrainian military says it is holding back an intensified spring offensive by Russian forces.

“I informed Keir about the situation on the frontline: our positions are now much stronger,” Mr Zelensky said.

Ukraine has recently stepped up strikes on Russian oil infrastructure.

Roughly 40 per cent of Russia’s oil export capacity has been halted, according to a Reuters calculation last week.

Mr Zelensky has said Ukraine is ready to suspend such strikes if Russia agrees to stop attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

On April 1, the Kremlin reiterated that Ukraine should have withdrawn troops “yesterday” from the remainder of Donbas.

Ukraine sees ceasing hostilities at the current lines of fighting as a compromise and rejects Russia’s demands to pull back from the land it still controls in the Donetsk region, part of Donbas.

Mr Zelensky has repeatedly called for a summit with Mr Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the territorial issue could only be discussed at the leaders’ level.

Following tense exchanges in recent days between US and European officials, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on X on April 1 that he spoke with Mr Trump: “Constructive discussion and exchange of ideas on NATO, Ukraine and Iran”. REUTERS