Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine and Russia to hold ‘high stakes’ peace talks after US midterm elections

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said high-stakes peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are scheduled for the days after the US midterm elections, according to comments he made to The Sun. The US-led summit, expected to be held in Abu Dhabi, would mark the first face-to-face talks between the two warring nations since Donald Trump lifted sanctions on Moscow.

The summit was initially planned for late November, but Zelenskyy said it could take place as soon as November 10. Kyiv has pushed for the talks to happen as soon as possible, even suggesting this Sunday, but will wait until after the US elections.

Zelenskyy clarified at a press conference, as reported by The Kyiv Independent, that the summit would take place only at a “technical level.” The event, held with Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten in The Hague, is nonetheless hoped to pave the way for a trilateral summit between Zelenskyy, U.S. Trump, and Putin. “We are waiting for the American side; I think that they’ll be ready with all the answers after the elections,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy warns Washington

Speaking from his fortified quarters in Kyiv during his interview with The Sun, Zelenskyy said he remained hopeful for progress but warned Trump—who has accused him of blocking a deal—that Ukraine will not pay a heavy price for peace. “If the United States, our strong partner, understands that Putin’s goal is to occupy us and destroy us, they can’t be on Putin’s side,” he said, while emphasizing his openness to negotiations with Russia.

“We are ready to speak, we are ready for negotiations, any kind of format; we are even ready to speak about any kind of topics, sensitive topics for us,” he continued. “It may not be fair even to discuss some topics, but we are ready, because I don’t want to show that we are stopping the negotiation process.”

These developments come amid deteriorating relations between Washington and Kyiv, with Trump telling reporters at the White House last week that Russia had “been fine on Ukraine.” In a separate briefing on Wednesday, Zelenskyy dismissed calls from President Trump for him to step down as Ukraine’s leader and hold fresh elections, despite nearly 20% of his country currently being occupied by a foreign power. “President Trump can say whatever he wants about me personally, but not about Ukraine,” he said. “When he says something about Ukraine, I respond because I have a responsibility to defend our country.”

Meanwhile, Putin reportedly used most of his recent phone call with European leaders to lecture on medieval Slavic history rather than advance peace talks. In the first such call in months, Russia’s president subjected the participants to an almost 90-minute monologue about what he described as the “initial reasons for the conflict,” according to the Financial Times.