Volodymyr Zelensky has backed plans for a partial truce to test whether Vladimir Putin is prepared to end his war on Ukraine. 

Senior Ukrainian and US officials will discuss the air, sea and critical infrastructure, as well as a large-scale prisoner exchange between Kyiv and Moscow, at a meeting in Saudi Arabia next week. The framework for the truce was first proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron.

“We all need to feel that the Russians are not deceiving us,” the Ukrainian president wrote online after meeting with EU leaders in Brussels today. 

His willingness to discuss the conditions of any peace deal is designed as a concession to Donald Trump, who last week accused his Ukrainian counterpart of wanting to prolong the war instead of negotiating a ceasefire. 

Mr Zelensky said the truce would be a “prologue” to a full peace settlement backed up by security guarantees from Kyiv’s Western allies. 

The first discussions on the plan will be held between Steve Witkoff, the US Middle East envoy, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, and Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, and Andriy Yermak, Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff, on Tuesday next week. 

It comes as John Healey, the Defence Secretary, arrived in Washington to meet Pete Hegseth, his US counterpart.