Zelenskyy says US gave Ukraine, Russia June deadline to reach agreement to end war

The United States has given Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to reach an agreement to end the nearly four-year-long war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters, as Russian strikes on energy infrastructure forced nuclear power plants to reduce output on Saturday.

If the deadline is not met, the Trump administration is likely to put pressure on both sides to comply, Zelenskyy said.

“The Americans are proposing that the parties end the war by the beginning of this summer and will probably put pressure on the parties precisely according to this schedule,” Zelenskyy said on Friday. His remarks were embargoed until Saturday morning.

“They say they want to do everything by June. They want a clear schedule of all events and will do everything to end the war,” he added.

Zelenskyy said the US has proposed holding the next round of trilateral talks next week on American soil for the first time, likely in Miami. “We confirmed our participation,” he said.

He also revealed that Russia had presented the US with a USD 12 trillion economic proposal, which he dubbed the “Dmitriev package” after Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev. Bilateral economic agreements with the US, he said, form part of the broader negotiations.

Meanwhile, Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure continued, with more than 400 drones and around 40 missiles launched overnight, Zelenskyy said in a post on X. Targets included the power grid, generation facilities and distribution networks.

Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state energy transmission operator, said this was the second mass strike on energy infrastructure since the start of the year. Eight facilities across eight regions were hit.

“As a result of missile strikes on key high-voltage substations that ensured the output of nuclear power units, all nuclear power plants in territories under control were forced to reduce their load,” the company said in a statement.

It added that the power deficit has increased “significantly”, leading to extended hourly power cuts across all regions.

The June deadline follows US-brokered trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi that failed to produce a breakthrough, as both sides maintain sharply opposing demands. Russia is pressing Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas region, where fighting remains intense — a condition Kyiv has repeatedly rejected.

“Difficult issues remained difficult. Ukraine once again confirmed its position on the Donbas issue. ‘We stand where we stand’ is the fairest and most reliable model for a ceasefire today, in our opinion,” Zelenskyy said, adding that the toughest issues would be addressed only at a leaders’ summit.

He said no agreement was reached on managing the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and expressed scepticism about a US proposal to turn the Donbas into a free economic zone as a compromise.

“I do not know whether this can be implemented, because when we discussed a free economic zone, we had different views,” he said.

Zelenskyy added that the latest talks focused on how a ceasefire would be technically monitored, noting that the US had reaffirmed its role in the process.

In recent months, Russian aerial attacks have increasingly targeted Ukraine’s power grid, triggering blackouts and disrupting heating and water supplies during winter, further straining the country.

Zelenskyy said the US had again proposed a ceasefire banning strikes on energy infrastructure. Ukraine is ready to adhere to such a pause if Russia commits to it, but he noted that a previous US-backed one-week halt collapsed after just four days due to Russian violations.