Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump approves major Russia sanctions bill after Zelensky says war could end soon

No additional demands should be placed on Ukraine in peace talks, Volodymyr Zelensky said as he called on Kyiv’s allies to step up their pressure on Russia, in particular via sanctions.

“We are doing everything required on our side in the negotiation process. And we expect that no additional or excessive demands will be placed on Ukraine,” he said during a visit to Cyprus, which has assumed the EU’s rotating presidency.

US president Donald Trump will allow a bipartisan sanctions bill targeting countries doing business with Russia to move forward in Congress and it could be put to a vote as early as next week, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on Wednesday.

Graham said in a statement Trump had “greenlit” the legislation after the pair met yesterday.

The legislation, which Graham has been working on with fellow Republicans and Democrats for months, would impose sanctions on countries doing business with Russia, including buyers of its energy exports, over Moscow’s failure to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

“This bill will allow President Trump to punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fueling Putin’s war machine,” Graham said, citing China, India and Brazil as potential targets of the legislation.

Graham, a senator from South Carolina, said he is looking forward to a “strong bipartisan vote” on the legislation to take place as early as next week.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine could be brought to an end in the first half of this year, adding that the negotiations have reached a new milestone.

The Ukrainian leader was speaking at a ceremony marking the start of Cyprus’s European Union presidency.

“As Cyprus begins its presidency of the Council of the EU, we note that the negotiations have reached a new milestone together with our European partners and, of course, the United States, and all members of the Coalition of the Willing,” Zelensky said.

“We sincerely believe that this war can be ended during your presidency of the Council of the EU,” he said.

The Mediterranean nation’s presidency of the Council of the EU will end in six months, at the end of June.

Neither would No 10 guarantee that the vote would be binding. Asked if MPs could prevent a deployment, the PM’s official spokesperson said: “I think we are getting ahead of ourselves.”

Russian strikes have knocked out power almost entirely in southeastern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, the Energy Ministry said late on Wednesday.

“As a result of the attack, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions are almost completely without electricity,” the ministry said in a statement on Telegram.

“Critical infrastructure is operating on reserve power.”

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he has received no “unequivocal answer” from European leaders on how they plan to defend Ukraine in the event Russia attacked it again after a peace deal was reached.

On being asked if he was sure that European allies would help Ukraine defend his country in the event of another invasion from Russia, Zelensky said he had no “clear” answer” on that.

“I personally very much want to get a very simple answer: yes, if there is aggression again, all partners will give a strong response to the Russians. And that’s the exact question I put to all our partners. And so far I haven’t received a clear, unequivocal answer,” Zelensky said.

Zelensky said there was “political will” from Ukraine’s allies to “give us strong security guarantees”.

“But until we have such security guarantees – legal ones, backed by parliaments, backed by the United States Congress – we cannot answer this question,” he said.

A member of the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is seen firing a Javelin anti-tank missile system during a military exercise at a training ground near a front line, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region on Wednesday.

The Independent’s Chief International Correspondent, Bel Trew, reports: