- Zelensky emphasizes diplomacy to end the war.
- Ukraine faces challenges in the east: Zelensky.
- Russia open to talks if Trump starts them: envoy.
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine must do everything it can to ensure the war with Russia ends next year through diplomacy, at a crucial moment after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election and Russia’s crushing gains on the battlefield.
However, Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin was not interested in agreeing to a peace deal, and said it was appropriate for Moscow to sit down and talk while continuing the fighting.
“For our part, we must do everything so that this war ends next year, through diplomatic means,” Zelensky said in an interview with Ukrainian Radio broadcast on Saturday.
Moscow’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva said on Thursday that Russia would be open to negotiations on ending the war if Trump started it, but added that such negotiations must recognize “the facts on the ground.”
Moscow uses this phrase to mean that Ukraine will have to cede four regions that were partially occupied by Russian forces and that Russia claims in full.
Zelensky has repeatedly said since Russia’s large-scale invasion in February 2022 that peace cannot be achieved until all Russian forces are expelled and all territory seized by Moscow is returned, including Crimea.
However, a return to Ukraine’s internationally recognized 1991 borders was not mentioned in the “victory plan” the president presented publicly last month.
Zelensky said the war would likely end faster under Trump, who repeatedly said during his campaign that he would end the conflict quickly, without providing details.
Zelensky said that US law prevents him from meeting Trump before his inauguration on January 20.
He added: “We will do everything that depends on us (to ensure the meeting). “We had a really good meeting in September,” Zelensky said, adding that he would only speak with Trump himself and not with any envoy or advisor.
The situation in eastern Ukraine
Zelensky admitted that the situation in eastern Ukraine was difficult and that Russia was making progress.
Russian forces are currently advancing towards Kurakhov, which has a thermal power plant located only seven kilometers from Pokrovsk, a large town that during most of the war was one of the logistical pillars in Ukraine.
On the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, Russia is now advancing at the fastest rate since the first days of the war in 2022.
Zelensky said the situation is difficult for several reasons, one of which is the delay in preparing the brigades for up to a year, due in part to months of delays by the US Congress last winter in approving aid to Ukraine.
But he said that some of these brigades will now enter the battle.
He added: “In order to stop the Russian army, new reserves will now arrive equipped with the equipment that we have been waiting for for a long time.”
Ukraine has sought to boost its arms production to reduce dependence on allies. Zelensky said that Ukraine is now manufacturing four different missiles that he said are currently being tested.