KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an interview broadcast on Sunday, said he wanted to press on with talks on securing peace with Russia before the onset of winter to take account of Kyiv’s improved strategic position.
Talks brokered by the United States on moving toward a peace accord have stalled as Washington has focused on the conflict in Iran.
Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have said the advance of Russian forces has slowed on the ground while Ukraine has intensified a campaign of medium- and long-range strikes inside Russia, targeting mainly Russia’s oil industry.
“It began in December 2025, Russia began to lose the initiative on the battlefield,” Zelensky told CBS Television’s ‘Face the Nation’.
“So now we have this period of time before the winter... before the winter we need to find a way, diplomatic way, to sit and to speak,” Zelensky said, adding that it depends on the pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, “the pressure in his society, and I think that is increasing, the pressure by sanctions -- not to lift them, to put more.”
Zelensky said there was also the possibility of negotiations organised with European help or bilateral talks with Russia, but he repeated his call to impose tougher sanctions on Russia.
