The United States wants the war between Russia and Ukraine to end by June. This was stated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The United States, the Kiev leader added, should not make deals on Ukraine without Ukraine anyway.
Zelensky, in a conversation with journalists, said that Russian and Ukrainian delegations will be in the United States next week for further talks. The two delegations have been invited to meet in a bilateral format, he underlined, stating that the meeting will most likely be held in Miami and that Ukraine has confirmed its participation.
He therefore highlighted that the territorial issue cannot be resolved during the negotiations in Abu Dhabi. “Complex issues remain complex – he explained -. Ukraine has once again confirmed its position on the Donbass issue. ‘We are where we are’ is, in our opinion, the most fair and reliable model for a ceasefire today”. The American side, according to him, would instead have raised the issue of the free economic zone again. “In general, neither Ukraine nor Russia have ever been enthusiastic about the idea of a free economic zone. Russia wants us to abandon the Donetsk region, and we said that the most reliable position is “we stay where we are”. The American side offers this compromise option, in its opinion. And we note that the parties have discussed this issue.”
The Zaporizhzhia question
He noted that negotiations in Abu Dhabi have not made any progress on the issue of the operation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. In his opinion, this issue should be resolved simultaneously, in particular, with the reconstruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station.
“Russia prefers attacks to diplomacy”
Zelensky reiterated that territorial issues should be resolved at the level of the leaders of Ukraine, the United States and Russia. He also confirmed his availability for such negotiations. “For the first time, the parties discussed that the most difficult issues can certainly be submitted to a trilateral meeting of leaders. Of course. But this requires some preparatory elements. It is important that discussion on this format is present in the dialogue.” “Every day, Russia could choose real diplomacy, but it chooses new attacks. It is crucial that all those who support trilateral negotiations react to this,” the Ukrainian president wrote earlier on X.
The request for weapons from partners
“Moscow – he added – must be deprived of the possibility of using the cold as a lever against Ukraine. This requires Patriot missiles, Nasams and other systems. Every shipment helps us get through this winter. I thank all our partners who understand this and are sincerely helping us.”
The situation on the field
“Wherever the security situation allows, rescue and repair operations continue at the sites of Russian attacks – continued Zelensky – Last night’s attack involved more than 400 drones and around 40 missiles of various types. The main targets were the energy network, generation plants and distribution substations. Damage was reported in the regions of Volhynia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Rivne. An apartment building was damaged in Rivne. Ladyzhyn, in the Vinnytsia region, drones hit the administrative building of an agricultural institute. There were also attacks in the Kiev and Kharkiv regions. In some regions, air defense operations are underway.”
The risk of involvement of Belarus
Zelensky then argued that there is now a risk that Belarus will be involved in a war, a risk mainly due to the location of the Oreshnik complex, Russian ballistic missiles, on its territory. Ukrinform reports it. “We are telling the Belarusian people that they are being dragged into a war against Ukraine,” he told reporters. “The Belarusian regime allowed an attack on Ukraine in 2022, but Belarusians did not participate in it. The regime allowed a large-scale invasion from Belarusian territory and the launching of missiles from Belarusian territory. In other words, this regime is allied with the aggressor, but there are people in Belarus who do not directly take part in the war. We believe there are risks if Belarusians are dragged into war.”
He recalled that during the war, Russia set up air corridors, including through Belarus, for attacks on the Ukrainian energy sector, mainly with attack drones. “It’s about technical support, technical equipment on the antennas in Belarus that helped the drones. Ukraine addressed the issue and found ways to use some antennas to reduce the scope of attacks against us. But we cannot address the Oreshnik issue with the same discretion as we addressed the issue of the antennas in Belarus,” Zelensky explained. According to him, preparatory work for sending Oreshnik to Belarus has already been carried out.
The pause hypothesis due to Russian financial troubles
He also speculated that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is considering a pause in the war due to rapidly growing financial problems in the Russian Federation, particularly the budget deficit. “The Russians have less money – he said – We see that there is a report from their Central Bank: over 80 billion dollars of deficit by 2025. We record that this is in the reports, but in reality it is more than 100 billion, because they have postponed part (of the payments, ed.) per year next”https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/mondo/2026/02/08/zelensky-gli-usa-vogliono-la-fine-della-guerra-in- ukraine-by-june-russia-prefers-attacks-to-diplomacy-74ab7386-255b-4fb0-bd41-0f5c94a27af0/.”Here because I think they need a break. I think Putin is thinking about a break. We believe they will have an even bigger deficit this year,” the head of state said.
The “prosperity package”
According to Zelensky, the Prosperity Package will be tripartite: its partners will be Ukraine, the United States and Europe. “So far we are still working on the documents of the Prosperity Package. Most likely, it will be a trilateral package between Europe, the United States and Ukraine. A single document, in which Europe, the United States and Ukraine will participate. We will all three sign it.”
With respect to reconstruction plans, “there could be different ones, with different funds. It would probably be difficult. Therefore, now the Americans are talking to the Europeans so that there is a single document,” the president said.