KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in comments Sunday that he is ready for the next round of trilateral peace talks to end Russia’s more than four-year invasion of Ukraine, but will need Washington and Moscow to agree on when and where to meet.
Zelensky said the United States offered to host the next meeting of the U.S., Ukrainian and Russian negotiating teams, including U.S. envoys Steve Vitkov and Jared Kushner, but Moscow declined to send a delegation.
“We are waiting for the response of the Americans. Either they change the country where we meet, or the Russians have to confirm the United States,” Zelensky told a media briefing on Saturday. “We will not block any of these initiatives. We want a tripartite meeting.”
The United States postponed talks hosted by both sides because of the war in the Middle East. The war in Iran, which broke out after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28 and spread across the region, has shifted international focus away from Ukraine’s plight as it struggles to contain Russia’s larger military.
In an interview with reporters, Zelensky also warned that the risk was “very high” that a war with Iran could deplete Ukraine’s air defense reserves used to counter Russian missile attacks.
Zelensky said he lacked a clear understanding of the available inventory and discussed with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday whether the SAMP/T system could replace U.S.-made Patriot missiles to intercept ballistic missiles. He said Ukraine would “be the first” to test any viable alternatives.
U.S. requests Ukrainian drone aid
He also appeared to push back on U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent assertion that Washington doesn’t need Ukrainian drone technology.
“No, we don’t need their help with drone defense,” Trump said in a Fox News Radio interview that aired Friday.
Zelensky said Washington had contacted Ukraine “multiple times” to request aid for specific countries or support for Americans, but gave no specific details. He said the requests were made by various U.S. military agencies to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and other military leaders.
“All of our agencies received these requests and we responded,” Zelensky said.
He said he proposed a $35 billion to $50 billion defense cooperation deal to Washington last year that would give the U.S. government access to technology from about 200 Ukrainian drone, artificial intelligence and electronic warfare companies, with half of the products earmarked for partners, mainly the U.S.
According to Ukrainian leaders, U.S. military officials have expressed strong interest in the proposal, and Trump himself has expressed a willingness to accept it.
“We received information from them and directly from the president that they were interested,” Zelensky told reporters. “We did not sign the document with President Trump. I don’t know why. Maybe it will happen in the future, but I’m not sure.”
Zelensky warns of ‘extortion’ in oil shipments
Regarding the reopening of the Druzhba pipeline, which carried Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia until the end of January, Zelensky said he opposed allowing Russian oil to transit through Ukraine amid EU sanctions on its sales of oil elsewhere.
“Why can we on the one hand tell the United States that we oppose the lifting of sanctions and on the other hand force Ukraine to resume oil shipments through Druzhba – and at the political cost of actually paying the price for anti-European policies?” Zelensky said. The United States has temporarily eased some sanctions on Russian oil shipments, reflecting global concerns about a sharp rise in crude prices amid supply shortages caused by the war with Iran.
Zelensky said Kyiv would have no choice but to resume oil shipments if conditions imposed on Ukraine over the dispute threatened arms supplies, but said he told EU partners it would amount to “blackmail”.
Oil shipments through the Druzhba River have been halted since January 27, leading to an escalating dispute between Hungary and Ukraine. Ukrainian government says Russian drone strikes damaged pipeline infrastructure, but Hungarian PM Viktor Orban Zelensky was accused of deliberately blocking oil supplies.
Orban responded by vetoing a new round of EU sanctions on Russia and blocking a massive 90 billion euro ($106 billion) EU loan to Ukraine until the loan was restored.
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