Zelenskyy offers partial ceasefire with Russia to restart peace talks

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed a new framework for a partial ceasefire with Russia on Tuesday, posting on X that Kyiv would be willing to release prisoners and agree to a truce that would ban long-range attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure.

The offer came after the Trump administration declared that Zelenskyy was not ready for peace and froze the U.S. military assistance that Ukraine has been relying on to battle the Russian invasion.

“Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the U.S. to agree a strong final deal,” Zelenskyy wrote, while reiterating his appreciation for U.S. support. For days Republicans have criticized him for being not adequately thankful on his trip last week to Washington, where an Oval Office meeting erupted into an argument between him, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Zelenskyy acknowledged that the way the meeting unfolded was “regrettable” in his post. “It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive,” he wrote.

The offer came after Trump’s decision to pause aid sent shock waves across Ukraine and Europe, stoking concerns about how the move might weaken Kyiv on the battlefield and fueling calls for Europeans to step up to fill the gaps that would emerge.

The idea for a partial ceasefire was originally floated by France, which suggested a potential one-month “truce in the air, at sea and on energy infrastructure,” which could be better monitored than ground fighting along the lengthy front line. If it holds, a truce could be paired with negotiations on security guarantees and other issues, and followed by a potential European troop deployment in the event of a settlement.

The pause in aid shocked Ukraine, which has relied heavily on U.S. weapons over the past three years of war. Military analysts say it has enough equipment at least for the next few months to hold the line.

In his nightly address Tuesday, Zelenskyy said he has instructed top officials to contact their U.S. counterparts to determine whether aid has indeed been halted after Ukraine received “various signals for weeks” regarding this possibility. “People should not have to guess,” he said. “Ukraine and America deserve a respectful dialogue and a clear stance from each other — especially when it comes to protecting lives during a full-scale war.”

Sustaining the fight over the long run will be a struggle without additional sources of weaponry, although Ukraine has prepared for such scenarios, Zelenskyy said, has endured aid stoppages in the past and is more resilient than when the full-scale invasion began in 2022.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Tuesday in a news conference — which included profuse thanks for U.S. efforts to date — that the country was rallying funding to build up its own defense capabilities. Ukraine is already producing 30% of weaponry and equipment used on the front line, and by the end of the year, it will produce 50%, he said.

“We have to be self-reliant,” he said. “Our existence is at stake.” He added that Kyiv remains ready to sign the minerals agreement with the United States, which was planned last week before the Oval Office clash between Trump and Zelenskyy.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed reports of the U.S. pause in his daily news briefing Tuesday, calling it “a decision that can really push the Kyiv regime toward the peace process” and “the best contribution” to accelerating the war’s end.

Officials familiar with the military situation in Ukraine said the country has adequate stocks of some munitions such as artillery shells and could source others elsewhere, but the pause would leave a dangerous void in the battle against the waves of Russia’s missiles and drones.

Roman Kostenko, a member of the parliament’s national security committee and a former commander in the army, said the missiles for systems like the Patriot air defense would be hard to replace.

“These are the only missiles, practically the only ones, that can shoot down ballistic missiles, that can protect our infrastructure,” he said. Ukraine has some stockpiles, “but if they realize that our partners are not supplying us and increase the intensity of their missiles, our air defense will be exhausted faster.”

A Ukrainian security official said it remains unclear what the U.S. pause would mean exactly, since there have not been any official statements explaining it. But he agreed that in the immediate term, air defense systems would be hardest hit.

Ukrainian troops would be able to hold the front line for several more months if Europe is not immediately able to fill gaps left by the United States, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “In terms of our ability to keep fighting in Donbas and in the south, it’s not nice, but it’s not like we are going to collapse because of that.”

He said what was most critical for the ability of Ukraine’s armed forces to fight is the provision of satellite intelligence, and that if it isn’t impacted, the fallout for now would be minimal.

Also of concern is the possibility that the United States could revoke its permissions to use missiles and fighter jets to strike targets inside Russia.

Michael Kofman, a defense analyst with the Carnegie Endowment, noted that for defensive actions, Ukrainians are less dependent than they used to be on U.S. equipment, especially as the nature of the fighting has changed. “Most of the casualties are now inflicted with mines, and drones, which are produced in Ukraine,” he posted on X.

Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general of the London-based defense think tank the Royal United Services Institute, agreed that a Ukrainian collapse on the front line is not imminent, but he said it would be affected in the long term.

“Recent estimates suggest that only 20% of total military hardware supplied to Ukrainian forces is now from the U.S.,” and an additional 25% is from Europe and elsewhere around the world. “But the 20% is the most lethal and important.”

While all most of the funds requested by the Biden administration for Ukraine have been spent, only half the equipment is actually in the country.

The freeze will affect billions of dollars in equipment that has already been paid for and was in the process of being sent to Ukraine, said Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. If the Trump administration’s aid freeze were continue, it would probably impact about an additional billion dollars of equipment each month.

European leaders have reiterated promises to keep supporting Ukraine, although it is unclear if they could totally compensate for the U.S. pause.

Officials and analysts say aid already pledged for 2025, including from Europe, put Ukraine on a solid financial footing for the year. And Kyiv’s European backers could rally more funds for military aid with enough political momentum, but they could not match key U.S. capabilities in air defense and long-range strike capabilities.

“There’s a question of money and then a question of capacities. On the question of money, the answer is yes,” said Nathalie Tocci, director of the Rome-based Institute of International Affairs and a former European Union foreign policy adviser. “It is clear that Europeans lack some of the capacities the U.S. provided.”

“It will be really tough times, in between when we are able to fill in those capacities that currently we don’t have, and Ukraine will kind of pay a price,” she said.

EU officials have sought to mobilize a new military package for Ukraine worth more than $20 billion. Those efforts are running up against economic woes among member states and objections from some states, notably Moscow-friendly Hungary — which has often tried to hold up EU aid for Kyiv.

On Friday, Trump and Vance publicly castigated Zelenskyy at the White House, demanding respect and gratitude. Zelenskyy drew another rebuke from Trump on Monday for saying that a deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine “is still very, very far away.” In a post on Truth Social, Trump berated Zelenskyy and accused him of not wanting peace.

Since the start of the war in 2022, the United States has provided over $100 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Most of this funding has gone to U.S. defense companies to purchase weapons made in the United States.

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Sands and Belton reported from London and Francis from Brussels. Serhii Korolchuk in Kyiv, Adam Taylor in Washington and Niha Masih in Seoul contributed.