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New reports suggest that US negotiators are hoping to wrap up talks within weeks
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The United States is aiming to secure a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine as early as next month, according to new reports.
Ukrainian negotiators and US officials discussed the ambitious target during discussions in Abu Dhabi this week, three sources told Reuters.
However, the timeline is likely to be delayed as both sides disagree on the key issue of territory, the report continued.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that the Americans “want to do everything by June” in comments on Friday that were embargoed until Saturday morning.
It comes after Russia blamed Kyiv for the shooting of a senior military general outside a residential building in Moscow, state media reported.
The Kremlin claimed that Kyiv was responsible for the shooting of Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, without providing evidence. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
The suspect is said to have fled the scene after shooting Lieutenant General Alexeyev several times in the Russian capital. He is currently in the hospital.
Meanwhile, the US is aiming to get a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia over the line in March despite a lack of progress on territorial concessions, according to reports.
Russia is set to question two suspects in connection with the attempted assassination of top Russian military intelligence official General Vladimir Alexeyev, according to reports by Russia’s Kommersant on Saturday.
The two individuals will “soon be interrogated”, it said, but did not confirm if the people had been detained. Russia has not officially commented on the reports.
Alexeyev regained consciousness on Saturday after undergoing a successful surgery but remains under medical supervision, Kommersant said.
A new wargame simulating a Russian incursion into Lithuania, carried out by ex-Nato and German officials, concluded that Moscow would “achieve most of its goals” within days.
The exercise envisaged a scenario where the Kremlin used bogus claims of a “humanitarian crisis” in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to seize the Lithuanian city of Marijampole to its east, a key conurbation through which the road linking Russia and Belarus runs.
The scenario, which plays out in October 2026, suggests that an absence of US leadership and hesitancy from Nato countries could allow Moscow to gain total control over the Baltic within days, using an initial force of only 15,000 troops.
Alex Croft reports:
Moscow launched over 400 drones – many of them shaheds – and about 40 missiles, targeting Ukraine’s power grid, generation facilities and distribution substations, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Ukraine’s drones struck a Russian plant that makes missile fuel, according to the country’s security agency in a statement on Saturday.
A huge fire is reported to have broken out at the plant in the Tver region of western Russia.
An official said that components for missile fuel for Russia’s X-55 and X-101 cruise missiles and other elements for diesel and aviation fuel were produced there.
“Even a temporary shutdown complicates the production of rocket fuel and reduces the enemy’s ability to maintain the intensity of shelling of our cities,” the official said.
Presiden Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted that Ukraine “needs results” as days of peace talks concluded in Abu Dhabi this week.
He said that the trilateral talks would be set to continue next week and issued an update on discussions so far.
“Our negotiating team delivered a report following meetings with the US and Russian sides,” he wrote in a post on X/Twitter on Saturday.
“They provided detailed updates on how the discussions unfolded and which particular points were most sensitive and which were constructive.
“Ukraine needs results, and one of the most important foundations for achieving lasting peace is effective security guarantees.
“Ukraine did not start this war; it is Russia that must bring it to an end. What matters is that our partners remain actively engaged, work for peace together and consider all realistic proposals.”
He thanked the US and said “more progress is needed”.
Territory remains a sticking point between Russia and Ukraine as US-brokered negotiations towards a peace deal continue.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the US is proposing a free economic zone in the Donetsk region, but that neither Ukraine nor Russia like the idea.
Ukraine has said it will not withdraw from territory in the Donetsk region that it still holds.
A top Russian military general, accused of being involved in the 2018 Salisbury poisonings, was shot outside his Moscow apartment in an alleged assassination attempt.
An unidentified gunman fired several shots at Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, deputy head of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence arm, before fleeing the scene, the investigators said.
It is the latest in a series of assassination attempts Russia has blamed on Ukraine.
Mr Alexeyev, 64, has previously been recognised by president Vladimir Putin with a Hero of Russia award. His position meant he would have been closely involved in prosecuting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
A treaty that prevented the US and Russia from expanding their nuclear weapons arsenals expired on Thursday, dismantling a major guardrail against a renewed arms race between the rival powers.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, commonly known as New START, required the two countries to restrict their nuclear warheads to 1,550 and missiles and bombers capable of delivering them to 700. These included weapons deployed and ready for use.
The US and Russia together hold nearly 85 per cent of the world’s strategic nuclear weapons and the expiration of the treaty, signed in 2010, threatens to launch the kind of unconstrained arms race that defined the Cold War. It may also prompt other nuclear and nuclear-adjacent nations to expand their arsenals at the very moment the world is engulfed in a series of escalating conflicts and trigger-point tensions.
The United Kingdom has threatened to seize a Russia-linked oil tanker in an escalation of tensions between the two countries over shadow fleets.
Military options to capture a rogue ship had been identified in discussions involving Nato allies, British defence sources told The Guardian.
The news comes weeks after the UK supported a US operation to seize a Russian-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic.
President Donald Trump has ordered the removal of a 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods for Russian oil purchases after India “committed to stop directly or indirectly importing” Russian oil.
It comes after the American leader announced a deal on Monday to cut the tariffs from 18 per cent from 50 per cent in exchange for India halting the purchase of Russian oil and lowering barriers to trade.
The interim framework deepens economic ties between the two countries, reaffirms a commitment to negotiations toward a broader bilateral trade agreement, while further negotiations are need to complete the pact.
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