US and Ukraine want this war to end before winter: Zelensky

The Ukrainian president added that he had just finished a "positive and productive meeting with President Trump" in New York, Euronews reports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that Kyiv and Washington want to see the war in Ukraine end "before winter" following what he described as a "positive" meeting with his US counterpart Donald Trump.

Zelenskyy and Trump met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, where the Ukrainian leader said they had discussed potentially "de-escalatory steps that can open up the way to diplomacy."

"I just had a positive and productive meeting with President Trump," he wrote in a post on social media. "Both the U.S. and Ukraine want to see this senseless Russian war ended before winter".

He added that he and Trump had also spoken about a winter air defence package for Ukraine as well as "other bilateral and multilateral issues."

Russia has kept up an almost relentless bombardment of Ukrainian cities and regions since launching its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, but it has particularly sought to target Ukraine's energy infrastructure over winter periods.