Umerov, the negotiator in Turkey for the talks, says Ukraine’s president hosted EU leaders to commemorate the anniversary of the Bucha massacre.
Published on 31 March 2026
Amid the continuing impasse in peace talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will ask US mediators to deliver their Easter ceasefire proposal to Russia and stop attacks on the country’s energy facilities.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event marking the fourth anniversary of Ukraine’s Bucha massacre on Tuesday, Zelensky said he would “certainly convey this proposal” to the United States in online talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Wednesday.
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“I would definitely ask them to hand it over to the Russian side,” he said ahead of the meeting, which will discuss the status of stalled US-brokered peace talks with Russia. “We are ready for a ceasefire for the Easter holidays… We are ready for any agreements except those related to our dignity and sovereignty.”
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had reacted coolly to Zelensky’s previous talk of an energy ceasefire. “From Zelensky’s statements, which we have read, we have not seen any clearly formulated initiative for an Easter ceasefire,” he said.
He added, “We repeat: Zelensky must take responsibility and make appropriate decisions so that we can achieve peace, not a ceasefire.”
Zelensky’s offer came a day after he said some of his country’s allies had sent “signals” to Kiev about the possibility of reducing their long-range strikes on Russia’s oil fields due to rising global energy prices.
Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to respond if Russia stopped attacking Ukrainian energy systems.
In the wake of the US-Israel war over Iran, Ukraine had increased its attacks on Russian energy in an attempt to prevent Russia’s gains from higher oil prices and the easing of sanctions.
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European diplomats visited Kiev on Tuesday to mark the four-year anniversary of the Bucha massacre and reaffirmed their support for Ukraine after Russia-friendly EU member Hungary blocked a 90 billion euro ($103 billion) loan to the country.
Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas as well as the foreign ministers of Germany, Poland, Italy and other EU countries attended the event in the Kiev suburb where Russia summarily executed hundreds of civilians in March 2022.
Ukraine Security Council Secretary Rustam Umerov was in Turkiye for talks with several countries, Zelensky said at the event, without giving details.
The US, Russia and Ukraine have held three rounds of high-level, trilateral talks this year in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Geneva, Switzerland, to negotiate an end to the war.
A fourth round of talks scheduled for this month were postponed because of the war over Iran, as no progress was made on the key question of territory in eastern Ukraine.
As a price for peace, Russia is insisting that Ukraine give up a fifth of the eastern region of Donbass, which it has been unable to conquer during the four-year war, a possibility Zelensky has refused to entertain, which in any case goes against the country’s constitution.
The Ukrainian president said later on Tuesday that Russia has told the US it could conquer the remaining part of the Donbass region in two months as it pressed for talks to end before the US Congressional midterm elections later this year.
Kiev believes it can defend its remaining “fortress belt” of industrial towns and cities in the Donbass for years, citing the slow pace of Russia’s frontline advances after 2023 as its troops run into a defensive wall of Ukrainian drones.
