Russia’s War Must Be Brought to an End, Says Zelenskyy; Contact with Washington ‘Nearly Uninterrupted’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the war with Russia must be brought to an end and his country is preparing for the next steps of diplomacy to bring the conflict to a close. He stated this position amid reports of tensions with Washington.

On Sunday, on the social platform X, Zelenskyy said he had spoken with US President’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. He added that much depends on the United States’ position, but it is clear that many issues are important to everyone.

Zelenskyy’s remarks have come against the backdrop of diplomatic differences with US President Donald Trump. On Saturday, Trump suspended the anticipated sanctions targeting Russia’s energy economy, and earlier he had described Ukraine’s new attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure as ‘shameful’.

Despite that, Zelenskyy said his team is in ‘nearly uninterrupted contact’ with the US side. At the centre of these talks are the outcomes of the discussions held in Florida and the next steps.

On Sunday, Zelenskyy also said he is grateful that the United States has resumed sharing intelligence information with Ukraine. As this cooperation had been halted for some time, Ukraine had become especially vulnerable in the face of Russia’s regular ballistic missile attacks.

Zelenskyy told NBC that this information was halted for some time, after which the US side resumed it. In his words, only the United States has the unique intelligence capability to tell when Russia uses ballistic missiles, and for three days during ballistic attacks Ukraine did not receive that information.

Kyiv has also said limits have been imposed on the speed of the Starshield satellite service. This is a version of the military-grade Starlink connection provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has been given to Ukraine.

Ukraine claims limits have been set on how fast a receiver can move while maintaining a connection on their relays. They believe this is making it nearly impossible to intercept Russia’s advanced jet-powered long-range drones.

Musk had said that responsibility for any limits imposed on the Starshield connection lay with the US government. The White House quickly protested that statement. In an interview with NBC on Sunday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described Zelenskyy as ‘very reckless’.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that Ukraine is currently blocked from Starshield, and Kyiv’s request for access to this system for strikes deep inside Russia is ‘under discussion’.

On the same day, Ukrainian media reported that two people were killed in a Russian attack in the western Volyn region near the Poland border, and at least five people were injured across the country. In a night-time attack, a woman was killed and a six-year-old child was injured in the Zaporizhzhia region.

On Saturday night and in the early hours of Sunday, Ukraine carried out a large drone attack on St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city. The targets were an important oil refinery and depot, a warehouse of Russian online retailer Ozon, and a data centre of the Russian social media platform VKontakte.

At least one person was killed in that attack. According to Russian state media, it was the biggest attack on the city since the war began in 2022. Amid these tit-for-tat attacks on the battlefield, the effort to end the war through the diplomatic path is now waiting for the next step.