{"id":285753,"date":"2026-02-07T13:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T13:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/285753\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T13:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T13:45:12","slug":"us-wants-russia-and-ukraine-to-end-war-by-june-says-zelenskiy-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/285753\/","title":{"rendered":"US wants Russia and Ukraine to end war by June, says Zelenskiy \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u200bUS<\/a> wants Russia<\/a> and Ukraine<\/a> to find a solution on how to end the \u200dwar, the largest since the second World War, before summer, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.<\/p>\n

In remarks to reporters \u200dreleased by his office on Saturday, Zelenskiy said Washington had proposed a new round of talks between Kyiv and Moscow to take place in Miami in a week and \u200cKyiv had agreed to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Americans are proposing that the parties end the war before \u2060the start of this summer, and will likely pressure the parties to \u200cadhere \u200bto \u200dthis schedule,\u201d Zelenskiy said. \u201cThe [mid-term congressional] elections are definitely more important to them. Let\u2019s not be naive. And they say they want to get everything done by June.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine and Russia concluded two days of US-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi this week without a \u200dmajor breakthrough but the two sides agreed to exchange 157 prisoners of war each, resuming such swaps after a five-month pause. Zelenskiy said that the POW swap would continue.<\/p>\n

The military teams discussed in detail technical aspects on how to monitor a potential ceasefire, Zelenskiy said. Security guarantees for Ukraine and agreements on economic cooperation, referred to by \u200cofficials as \u201cthe prosperity \u200cplan\u201d that outlined Ukraine\u2019s postwar recovery, were also discussed.<\/p>\n

Zelenskiy said he had reports from his intelligence services on discussions in which Russia\u2019s \u200cspecial envoy Kirill Dmitriev proposed co-operation deals between Russia and the United States worth as much \u2060as $12 trillion (\u20ac10 trillion). He said that any such bilateral agreements between Russia and the United States could not violate the Ukrainian constitution.<\/p>\n

Air attack<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ukrainian \u200bdrones struck a plant that makes \u200dmissile fuel components in the \u200dTver region of western Russia, an official from Ukraine\u2019s SBU \u200csecurity service said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The official \u2060said that components for \u200cmissile \u200bfuel \u200dfor Russia\u2019s X-55 and X-101 cruise missiles and other elements \u2060for diesel and aviation fuel \u2060were produced there. \u2060The drone strike caused a large fire \u200dat the plant, the official said.<\/p>\n

Russia launched a massive air attack on Ukrainian energy \u200dfacilities overnight on Saturday, targeting electricity generation and distribution, Kyiv said. Zelenskiy said the overnight attack involved more than 400 drones and some 40 missiles \u200dof various types, targeting the grid, generation facilities and distribution substations.<\/p>\n

Nearly four years into the war that began with Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of its neighbour, Ukraine\u2019s battered energy sector is crumbling under the Russian strikes, accumulated wartime damage and bitterly cold winter weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day, Russia could \u200cchoose real diplomacy, but it chooses new strikes,\u201d Zelenskiy posted on X. \u201cIt is crucial that everyone who supports the trilateral negotiations respond to this. Moscow must be deprived \u2060of the ability to use the cold as leverage against Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moscow did not immediately comment on the attacks.<\/p>\n

Energy \u200cminister \u200bDenys \u200dShmyhal said the strikes hit two thermal power stations in the country\u2019s western regions and core elements of the Ukrainian electricity distribution system – substations and key electricity distribution lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussian criminals carried out another massive attack on Ukraine\u2019s energy facilities,\u201d Shmyhal said on the Telegram app. \u201cEnergy workers are ready to start repair works \u2060as soon as the security situation allows.\u201d<\/p>\n

The strikes were launched as temperatures began to drop and are forecast to fall to minus \u206014 degrees in the coming days.<\/p>\n

The \u2060new Russian attacks on the energy system also come just days after the latest round of the US-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia on how to end the war.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Russian general remains in coma after Moscow shootingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Despite pressure from US president \u200dDonald Trump\u2019s administration and rounds of talks, diplomatic efforts have so far brought no tangible results.<\/p>\n

Since autumn 2025, Moscow has intensified its attacks on the Ukrainian power grid and other energy infrastructure, forcing frequent blackouts across Ukraine and plunging millions into darkness for hours.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian officials said that emergency power cuts were introduced across the country. Shmyhal said the government asked Poland for emergency power imports to help the Ukrainian grid.<\/p>\n

Regional officials reported attacks across the country, including in the western regions of Khmelnytskyi, Rivne, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv.<\/p>\n

The Burshtyn and Dobrotvir \u200cthermal power plants in western Ukraine \u200cwere hit, officials said.<\/p>\n

DTEK, Ukraine\u2019s largest private energy company, said that equipment was damaged significantly at its thermal power plants in different regions. DTEK said it was the 10th attack on its thermal power stations since \u200cOctober 2025.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times view on the ending of the US\/Russia arms treaty: the risk of a new arms raceOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cSince Russians have been targeting energy facilities in various regions of our country, power outages may last much longer,\u201d said Maksym Kozytskyi, the Lviv regional \u2060governor.<\/p>\n

He said air alerts lasted more than six hours in the western Lviv region, close to the Polish border.<\/p>\n

Polish authorities said two airports in southeastern Poland were suspended from operations as a precaution due to Russian strikes on nearby Ukrainian territory. The airports in Poland later resumed operations. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u200bUS wants Russia and Ukraine to find a solution on how to end the \u200dwar, the largest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,3589,40,38,41,39,9688,5936,58419],"class_list":["post-285753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-russia","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-ukraine-crisis","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskiy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}