Zelensky accuses Russia of trying to evade peace talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday accused Moscow of dodging efforts to arrange a direct meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite Washington’s attempts to broker peace.

US President Donald Trump has been pushing to bring both leaders to the table in a bid to end Russia’s three-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine. His recent talks with Putin in Alaska, followed by meetings with Zelensky and European leaders in Washington, however, yielded little progress.

“Russia is trying to wriggle out of holding a meeting,” Zelensky said in his nightly address. “Frankly speaking, the signals coming from Moscow are simply outrageous. They don’t want to end this war. They continue massive strikes on Ukraine and brutal assaults along the front line.”

While Zelensky has expressed readiness to meet Putin, he insists such talks must come only after Ukraine’s allies agree on a framework of security guarantees to deter future Russian aggression. He has also demanded that any summit take place in a neutral European country, ruling out Moscow as a venue, and dismissed the idea of China acting as a guarantor.

Russia, for its part, has accused Kyiv of being uninterested in “long-term” peace, saying Ukraine’s demands for security guarantees are incompatible with Moscow’s conditions.

Trump has set a two-week deadline to gauge the viability of a peace deal, telling Newsmax that the US may “have to take a different tack” if the talks collapse.

Fresh escalation
Zelensky warned that both sides were preparing for renewed clashes, saying Russia was reinforcing its southern front while Ukraine had successfully tested a new long-range cruise missile.

The comments followed Russia’s largest aerial barrage since July, with hundreds of drones and missiles striking Ukrainian targets overnight. One person was killed in Lviv, while dozens were wounded, including 23 at an American-owned factory in Mukachevo.

Zelensky called the strike “a deliberate attack specifically on American-owned property.” The American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine said Moscow was trying to “destroy and humiliate” US businesses in the country.

Later shelling in Kherson killed one person and wounded more than a dozen, while Russian-installed officials in occupied Donetsk said Ukrainian shelling killed two people and injured at least 21.

Territorial claims
On the battlefield, Russia announced it had captured Oleksandro-Shultyne, a village in eastern Donetsk, as it pressed toward the fortified town of Kostiantynivka.

France condemned the overnight strikes, saying they showed Moscow’s “lack of will to seriously engage in peace talks.” Meanwhile, Britain and France are leading efforts to assemble a military coalition that would underpin security guarantees for Kyiv.

Zelensky said Ukraine hoped to finalize the framework for these guarantees “within seven to 10 days.”

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed Ukraine’s demands as unrealistic and warned that any deployment of European troops would be “absolutely unacceptable.”

Zelensky also announced the successful test of Ukraine’s new cruise missile, dubbed Flamingo, capable of striking targets up to 3,000 kilometers away, with mass production expected by February.

Despite Western backing, Russia continues to make slow but steady gains, concentrating forces in the Zaporizhzhia region, one of the five Ukrainian territories it claims to have annexed.