Zelensky says Washington has issued June deadline for reaching peace deal with Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has told reporters that the Trump administration has given both Moscow and Kyiv a June deadline to finalise a peace deal, after two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi appeared to have done little to break the deadlock between the two sides.

In comments to the press that were embargoed until Saturday morning, Zelensky said on Friday that the Americans were “proposing the parties end the war by the beginning of this summer and will probably put pressure on the parties precisely according to this schedule”.

“They say that they want to do everything by June. And they will do everything to end the war. And they want a clear schedule of all events,” Zelensky continued.

However, on Friday night Reuters reported that the US and Ukraine had also discussed a far more ambitious goal of reaching a peace agreement by March, with one source telling the news agency: “The Americans are in a hurry.”

US negotiators in Abu Dhabi have been insisting on an expedited timeframe for a deal, noting that as November’s midterm elections approach, US President Donald Trump will be far more focused on domestic politics, leaving “less time and political capital to spend on sealing a peace accord”, two sources told Reuters.

Any deal acceptable to Kyiv would be put to a national referendum, which Reuters said was provisionally planned for May and would be held at the same time as a general election, which has been postponed since mid-2024 due to the country being under martial law.

However, several Reuters sources called these deadlines unrealistic, noting that, according to Ukraine’s own forecasts, it would take about six months to organise a national vote, not least as holding elections would require legislative change.

“Kyiv’s position is that nothing can be agreed until the security guarantees for Ukraine from the United States and partners are in place,” one Reuters source said.

However, despite four days of meetings in Abu Dhabi over the past two weeks, there appears to have been no progress in resolving the central territorial dispute between Russia and Ukraine, namely who will control the country’s eastern Donbas region.

In addition, Moscow has reportedly rejected Washington’s proposal that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant be placed under US control and that the energy produced be distributed equally between Russia and Ukraine, insisting instead that the Russian-occupied plant remain under Moscow’s control in any post-war scenario.