Ukraine ready to hold new round of talks with Russia in US on Feb. 17-18. Moscow yet to confirm
President Volodymyr Zelensky told Bloomberg that Ukraine has accepted the U.S. invitation to hold a new round of peace talks next week.
According to the president, the negotiations would be hosted by the U.S. and will take place on Feb. 17 and Feb. 18. The talks, however, depend on Russia's agreement to participate, something that Ukraine and the U.S. have not yet received.
Ukraine on Jan. 24 concluded the second round of trilateral peace talks with Russia and the United States in the UAE, capping two days of negotiations in a renewed U.S.-led effort to push toward a settlement in Russia's full-scale war.
"The main thing the discussions focused on was potential parameters for ending the war," Zelensky said following the talks.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Feb. 11 effectively dismissed a U.S.-Ukraine 20-point peace framework, which had been expected to form the basis for peace negotiations.
Lavrov said that ahead of the August summit in Alaska, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff handed Moscow a document outlining key issues "in line with realities on the ground."
The minister claimed that the sides had identified "real approaches based on the American initiative" that "opened a path to peace" and could have formed the basis for a final agreement.
"All subsequent versions are the result of an attempt by Zelensky and (Europe) to override the American initiative," Lavrov said. "Now they are waving around some kind of 'document' with 20 points, which no one has given us either officially or unofficially."
The 20-point framework Lavrov referenced was developed by U.S. and Ukrainian officials in late December 2025. An earlier 28-point draft, widely viewed in Kyiv as pressuring Ukraine toward capitulation, was revised into a shorter document.
Bloomberg earlier reported that the plan was delivered to Russian President Vladimir Putin in early January via Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, with Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, later visiting Moscow to discuss it directly with Putin.
