FRAMEWORK FOR AN AGREEMENT
Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been arranging the talks, has said the idea was to “get down a framework for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire as well”.
Zelenskyy has called for a truce in the air and at sea, as well as a prisoner exchange, in what he says could be a test of Russia’s commitment to ending the war.
Moscow has rejected the idea of a temporary truce, which has also been proposed by Britain and France, saying it was a bid to buy time for Kyiv and prevent its military collapse.
The Ukrainian leader has also said Kyiv was ready to sign the minerals deal with the US that would create a joint fund from the sale of Ukrainian minerals, and which Washington says is crucial to secure continued US backing.
With US support in question, Zelenskyy has been urging his European allies to ramp up their support as Kyiv’s battlefield position deteriorates and it faces mounting pressure to retreat from Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukrainian troops that stormed into the Kursk region last summer are nearly surrounded by Russian forces, open source maps show.
Russia holds around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea which it annexed in 2014, and its troops are also pressing in the eastern Donetsk region, having ramped up drone and missile strikes on cities and towns far from the front.
Russia has launched 1,200 aerial guided bombs, nearly 870 attack drones and more than 80 missiles at Ukraine in the past week alone, Zelenskyy has said.
