Zelensky repeats ceasefire demands

Russia has consistently warned that Ukraine could use a truce to rearm and regroup

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.”

“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, who walked away from a peace deal with Moscow three years ago claiming “we will fight,” and has since then seen four Ukrainian regions join the Russian Federation, stated he is now ready for talks “in any format, bilateral, trilateral.” 

Moscow believes Kiev will use any ceasefire to regroup and re-arm its forces, as it has done in the past. Russia currently holds the initiative across the front line, and has repeatedly listed the conditions necessary for a long-lasting ceasefire: Kiev must withdraw its troops from the parts of Russian territory it controls, halt conscription, stop receiving military aid from abroad, recognize Russia’s new borders, and abandon its ongoing attempt to join NATO.

The Kremlin has also noted that Zelensky signed a decree in October 2022 formally banning any Ukrainian talks with Russia while Putin remains president.

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Putin has said he is ready to meet with Zelensky but only after a peace treaty is ready to be signed. Asked if he would push for an invitation to Trump’s planned summit with the Russian president 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.