Zelensky says the US wants Russia-Ukraine talks by the end of October

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that the US wants to broker a new round of talks with Ukraine and Russia on ending the four-and-a-half-year war and hold it by the end of October.

The US-led peace efforts have been largely stalled with Washington’s attention shifted to its war with Iran and as Ukraine says Russia has ramped up its aerial attacks across the war-torn country.

“The American side is currently in contact with Ukraine and Russia and is proposing to somehow hold a meeting at the technical level in a trilateral format by the end of October,” Zelensky told reporters on Sunday.

He said he had spoken with the American negotiators on Saturday.

“I confirmed to them that our side is ready to support this timeline,” he added.

Zelensky did not say where the talks would take place but said Ukraine was “open to the Emirates or another country proposed by the American side”.

The UAE had in the past hosted talks mediated by the US aimed at ending the Russian invasion.

The Kremlin said last month that three-way talks on ending the war could take place in October.

“We do not rule out such a possibility; we are talking about the foreseeable future,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted at the time as saying by Russia’s Ria and Tass news agencies.

Previous rounds of talks have failed to yield tangible progress towards peace, with Moscow unwilling to drop its maximalist conditions to end the fighting.