March 5 (Reuters) – Ukraine spoke to the United States about the possibility of postponing the next round of trilateral talks with Russia “for a while” and changing the location due to the spiraling Iran conflict, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.
New negotiations to end the four-year-old war had been expected to take place in Abu Dhabi before the Gulf hub was targeted by Iranian strikes. Zelenskiy said this week that Kyiv was open to other locations, such as Turkey or Switzerland.
“The next Ukraine–U.S.–Russia trilateral meeting was planned for the period from March 5 to 9, depending on developments around the world. Currently, there is another war in the Middle East,” Zelenskiy said on X, citing comments he gave in an interview with Italian network Rai Italia.
“We spoke with the American side, since they are the party inviting Ukraine and Russia to the meeting, about the possibility of changing the location and postponing the meeting for a while due to the war in the Middle East.”
He added that Ukraine hoped the exchange of prisoners of war agreed in previous meetings would still proceed, and also repeated his criticism of Moscow’s demand that Ukraine withdraw from the remaining 20% of its eastern Donetsk region.
Russia has said Ukraine needs to give up control of the industrialised region which Russia has been unable to fully conquer, something which Kyiv has refused to do. The issue remains a key stumbling block in talks.
“Why should we leave our own land that we control? He (Russian President Vladimir Putin) has not succeeded on the battlefield. He has no strength,” Zelenskiy said.
“He wants us to believe him and simply withdraw from our well-fortified territories.”
Ukraine’s outgunned and outmanned army has retaken territory in recent weeks, gaining more in February than it lost for the first time since 2023, according to the Finland-based Black Bird Group analysis team.
Zelenskiy added that Russia might be supplying Iran with electronic components for its Shahed attack drones and called on Kyiv’s allies to “share their information” on the matter.
The Kremlin said on Thursday that Iran has not approached Russia for military assistance.
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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