(Bloomberg) — The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said he had accepted a U.S. offer to host another round of negotiations next week to end Russia’s war, with negotiators likely focusing on the difficult issue of territory.
The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday, Zelensky told Bloomberg News, though it is not clear whether Russia would agree to talks in the United States. On the agenda is an American proposal to establish a free economic zone as a buffer area in the eastern Donbas region, an option that the Ukrainian leader said both sides in the conflict viewed with skepticism.
“Neither side is enthusiastic about the idea of the free economic zone — neither the Russians nor us,” Zelensky said in a phone interview in Kyiv on Tuesday, though he declined to rule out the possibility. “We have different visions about it. And the arrangements were as follows: we will come back with the vision of how this could look for the next meeting.”
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The Trump administration’s envoys are intensifying efforts to end Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine as it approaches its fifth year, and the issue of territory is the main sticking point.
A previous round of talks earlier this month among Russian, Ukrainian, and American officials in Abu Dhabi was constructive, Zelensky said, adding that the war could end in months if negotiations proceed in good faith.
Kyiv’s preferred option for the Donbas — where the Kremlin maintains its demand to control the entire region, including areas it has failed to seize militarily — is for troops to remain in their positions along the front line. In discussions about who controls the buffer zone, the United States should clarify its position, he said.
“If it’s our territory — and it is our territory — then the country to which the territory belongs should govern it,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian leader had previously said that the U.S. midterm elections in November are putting pressure on the Trump administration to secure a peace deal in Ukraine. He told reporters last week that the Trump team proposed wrapping up all negotiations necessary to end the fighting by June.
The U.S. administration wants to sign all documents at once, Zelensky said. He stressed that Ukraine would need to approve the peace proposal through a parliamentary vote or a national referendum.
The Ukrainian leader has repeatedly stated that he intends to call a referendum on any peace agreement after the fighting ends. Zelensky’s bloc’s parliamentary party leader, David Arakhamiya, told reporters last month that Kyiv may finish drafting a referendum law by the end of February and that such a vote should be held alongside a presidential election.
“For now, we are also talking about a sequencing plan for all of our actions, including the signing of documents,” Zelensky said. “I think that after our next meeting, there should be an understanding.”
Ceasefire mechanics
The recent negotiations in the United Arab Emirates focused on the mechanics of a ceasefire and how it would be monitored by the United States, according to Zelensky. But the negotiators were unable to finalize the details without high-level political decisions, he said.
While negotiators review the drafting of the pending agreement, Zelensky said the discussions made clear that any truce would require monitoring involving the participation of the United States.
“The Russians have one draft, we have another, the Americans have a third,” Zelensky said. “There is an understanding that there will be monitoring, but there is also an understanding that more work is needed in the drafting and the details.”
The next round of negotiations, which will also include bilateral talks with Washington, could study proposals for post-war planning and focus on economic issues, he said. For this purpose, Kyiv will send the Minister of Economy, Oleksii Sobolev, to join the delegation to discuss the so-called “prosperity package” with the United States, Zelensky said.
Any optimism about progress should not mask the difficulty Ukraine faces regarding financing recovery and maintaining military capacity to deter any future Russian attack, Zelensky said. He warned that an economic shock could arise without clear funding sources, referring to the billions of dollars needed for reconstruction, social spending, and military expenditures in the coming years.
That would require a clear financing mechanism with European participation, since even potential funding from frozen assets of the Russian central bank would not cover long-term needs, he said.
Recent Russian airstrikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure destroyed up to 10 gigawatts of the country’s generating capacity, Zelensky said, leading to daily energy deficits of about five to six gigawatts during peak hours. Some facilities will not be repaired until the next heating season.
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