Zelenskyy says US looks for deal ending Russia's war by June

Olesia Safronova, Bloomberg News on Feb 7, 2026

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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the U.S. is proposing to finish all necessary negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in June.

“The Americans are proposing that the parties end the war by the beginning of this summer,” Zelenskyy told reporters in a briefing late Friday.

“We understand that American internal issues have an impact and will certainly become even more relevant for them,” he said, suggesting U.S. midterm elections in November would become the administration’s major focus.

Zelenskyy said that the next round of peace talks aimed at ending Russia’s four-year invasion may happen in about a week, amid another proposed energy truce. “The Ukrainian team has already accepted the invitation,” he said.

Washington has once again advised Ukraine and Russia to halt strikes on energy targets as “de-escalation gesture,” which Ukraine has accepted, he said.

Hours after Zelenskyy’s comments, Russian forces unleashed another massive missile and drone barrage, targeting Ukraine’s power grid and leaving much of the nation’s west without electricity, heating or water.

With temperatures remaining well below freezing, Russia is taking advantage of the harsh conditions to further strain Ukraine’s war-damaged energy system, as its invasion nears the four-year mark that will be reached on Feb. 24.

The overnight barrage involved more than 400 drones and about 40 missiles of various types, with damage reported in the Volyn, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, and Rivne regions. More then 600,000 households were left without electricity across the Lviv region, local governor Maksym Kozytskyi said on Telegram.

Zelenskyy said the negotiation teams may discuss several issues in the next round, including how to monitor control of the combat line if a ceasefire is reached. Ukraine’s military have the understanding of technical details and agree that U.S. can conduct this monitoring, he said.

He reiterated that most sensitive issues — mainly territorial questions in eastern areas and the fate of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — remain unresolved.

“Ukraine has once again confirmed its position on the Donbas. We stand where we stand,” Zelenskyy said. Russia has made control of Ukraine’s eastern areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, which its forces have failed to fully capture in fighting that goes back to 2014, a key negotiating point.

On Saturday, Zelenskyy said his negotiating team had provided a briefing after meetings this week with U.S. and Russian officials, with an emphasis on potential postwar security guarantees.

“Ukraine needs results, and one of the most important foundations for achieving lasting peace is effective security guarantees,” he said on X. “Ukraine did not start this war; it is Russia that must bring it to an end.”

Zelenskyy said Ukraine would keep European allies “informed about the state of negotiations.” His comment came as a few more Western officials — including a French diplomatic envoy and the chairman of the Vienna-based OSCE — have traveled to Moscow.

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