Ukraine has limited window for negotiations with Russia, Zelensky says

June 1 ------ The window for effective peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow will remain open until winter 2026, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with CBS News.

By regaining the initiative on the battlefield in December 2025, Ukraine was better positioned to negotiate with Russia, Zelensky told CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan. This window will last until the next winter, when Moscow is again expected to hammer Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure.

The president said he informed Kyiv's U.S. partners, who have been brokering talks with the Kremlin, of this opportunity for diplomacy. "(I)t began in December 2025, Russia began to lose initiative on the battlefield," Zelensky said. "And from this point of view, I shared this information with our American partners. I said to them in January, I think that we have window for the negotiations, because each month they will lose more and more people ... So now we have this period of time before the winter. So I think that in winter — we have, before the winter, we need to find a way, diplomatic way, to sit and to speak."

Russia's front-line advances stalled in the winter of 2025-2026, as they have in previous years throughout the full-scale war. Freezing cold conditions made it more difficult for Russian infantry groups to infiltrate Ukrainian positions and bypass Ukrainian drone operators.

In early March 2026, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed that in the previous month, Ukraine recaptured more territory than Russia occupied during that period — marking the first such advantage since Ukraine's failed 2023 counteroffensive . While Ukrainian forces launched new counterattacks in the south and seized the initiative near the front lines, Russia dramatically escalated its aerial bombardments of Ukrainian cities, targeting heating and electricity supplies in the dead of winter. "They began attack us with massive missiles attacks, and again, the main reason why they did it, because they begin to lose on the battlefield," Zelensky told CBS News.

Zelensky also said that Russia was losing up to 35,000 soldiers a month fighting in Ukraine. "And they are on the way to the big crisis with the people, I think all these things will push them to the dialogue," he said. In order for Ukraine to take advantage of the opportunity to resume negotiations, Russian President Vladimir Putin will need to face additional pressure, Zelensky said. The president also recognized that U.S. negotiators were focused on the war in Iran and not currently prioritizing Ukraine. "United States moved and shift their focus on the Middle East, and because of this, I think Middle East is a priority. That's why we have some pauses in our diplomatic negotiations," he said.

Still, Zelensky emphasized the importance of resuming peace discussions, in particular stressing the war's ongoing impact on Ukrainian children. Russia has abducted over 20,000 children from Ukraine, a war crime for which the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant to Putin.

Zelensky said it was urgent that Ukraine and its partners work to bring more children home and claimed that Russia offered to exchange kidnapped Ukrainian children for prisoners of war (POWs). "They proposed us to exchange children with soldiers," he said. "Can you imagine, how we can exchange our children? ... Yes, it's important to get back our warriors, war prisoners, but we can't exchange them on the children."

Zelensky also said Russia was training stolen children to hate Ukraine, and in some cases sending boys kidnapped from Ukraine to fight in Moscow's war against their countrymen. He said the government had evidence of Russia "push(ing) these boys on the battlefield."

The president's remarks come as Ukraine braces for another large-scale Russian ballistic missile attack. Zelensky has appealed directly to U.S. President Donald Trump for additional support, including air defense missiles, sanctions against Russia, and renewed diplomacy. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on May 30 that the United States will "find a way" to help Ukraine defend itself, though he provided no details.

The last round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia took place February 2026 in Geneva. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted on May 12 that the U.S.-mediated talks had effectively stalled out. Zelensky told CBS News that Ukraine hoped to host Trump's top negotiators, Special Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, in Kyiv within the next two weeks.

Source: kyivindependent.com