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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Wednesday for a freeze along the current front lines in the war with Russia as an initial step toward ceasefire negotiations.
"Right now we have to freeze, and I think this is (the) real way to end this war. We call it ceasefire... freeze and stop," Zelenskyy said in an interview on Fox & Friends, when asked whether he would accept a peace agreement that freezes the front along its current lines following Russia's invasion.
His remarks came as U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg for talks aimed at ending the war.
As Witkoff arrived in the Russian city, Moscow announced plans to begin diesel shipments to the United States under an agreement with President Donald Trump. Russia also said it had released a U.S. citizen held in the country since the war began.
Zelenskyy insisted that Ukraine must be involved in any negotiations over its future.
"I always said that we are open to negotiate in any format, any topics. But don't speak about us without us, please."
He also emphasized that any peace agreement must include security guarantees from international partners, particularly the United States and European allies.
Such guarantees, he said, would help ensure Ukrainians are not "afraid... that occupation will come back, aggression will come back, killings will come back."
Zelenskyy's comments came days after Kyiv accused Washington of deliberately slowing speeds on SpaceX's Starshield satellite communications network, a critical component of Ukraine's battlefield communications. Ukrainian forces also rely on SpaceX's civilian Starlink satellite service.
Starlink and Starshield services are "still limited," Zelenskyy said.
"But Secretary (of State Marco Rubio) told me that he will work with his team on this to unblock this."
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that SpaceX owner Elon Musk had ordered the slowdown of Starshield services used by Ukrainian forces.
Musk had previously suggested that any restrictions on the system would have been authorized by Trump, an assertion the U.S. president denied.
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