The United States set a June deadline for Ukraine and Russia to reach a peace deal and end the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters.
If the two sides miss this deadline, they will likely face pressure from the Trump administration, Zelenskyy said in remarks reported on by The Associated Press and other outlets. These comments were made on Friday, but embargoed until Saturday morning, the AP wrote.
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“[The administration says] they want to get everything done by June,” Zelenskyy said, according to The Guardian. “They will do everything to end the war and they want a clear schedule of all events.”
The U.S. proposed holding another round of trilateral talks in America for the first time, Zelenskyy said, and Ukraine confirmed its participation. Previous talks between the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine concluded without a deal.
Sticking points in negotiations include Russia wanting Ukraine to withdraw from Donbas, a demand which Zelenskyy refused.
“Difficult issues remained difficult. Ukraine once again confirmed its positions on the Donbas issue. ‘We stand where we stand’ is the fairest and most reliable model for a ceasefire today, in our opinion,” Zelenskyy said.
Intelligence sources showed Zelenskyy documents with a framework for a U.S.-Russian economic agreement, he said, according to The Washington Post. Zelenskyy called this the “Dmitriev package,” after Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We are not aware of all their bilateral economic or business agreements, but we are receiving some information on the matter,” Zelenskyy said on Friday. There are also “various signals” that these agreements could involve issues related to Ukraine, such as its sovereignty or security, he said.
“We are making it clear that Ukraine will not support any such even potential agreements about us that are made without us,” Zelenskyy said, per The Post.
Straight Arrow News reached out to The White House and State Department for comment.
Russia attacks Ukraine energy grid
Russian forces struck various sites in Ukraine on Friday, with the main targets being the energy grid, generation facilities and distribution substations, Zelenskyy said on X. More than 400 drones and around 40 missiles of “various types” were used in the attack, he said.
An apartment building was damaged in Rivine, and drones hit an agricultural college’s administrative building in the Ladyzhyn, Vinnytsia region. Damage was reported in Lviv, as well as strikes in Kyiv and Kharkiv.
Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state-owned electricity transmission system operator, said power facilities in eight regions came under attack, including plants and substations of the electricity transmission and distribution systems.
“As a result of missile strikes on key high-voltage substations that provided power to nuclear power units, all nuclear power plants in the controlled territory were forcibly unloaded,” Ukrenergo said in a statement. “This led to a forced increase in the duration of hourly outages in all regions. “
Emergency outages are in effect for most regions, and will be canceled after the power system stabilizes, Ukrenergo said.
