“We are already starting a new diplomatic week, there will be consultations with European leaders. First of all, security issues, support for our stability, support packages for our defense. First of all, air defense, long-term financing for Ukraine. Of course, we will also talk about a common view, common positions in the negotiations,” he said.
The President noted that Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andrei Gnatov are returning from the United States after “substantive conversations.”
“Some things can only be discussed in person: Umerov and Gnatov will report to me, I will also talk with European leaders – we have meetings planned in London, as well as in Brussels,” Zelensky said.
He also mentioned his conversation on December 6 with US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and the White House head's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“I am grateful for the willingness to work together 24/7. American representatives know the basic Ukrainian positions, it was a constructive conversation, albeit difficult. We continue to work,” Zelensky emphasized.
According to him, he is constantly “in touch” with the leaders of Italy, Great Britain, France, Germany, the heads of the European Commission and NATO, and other partners of Ukraine.
“I thank everyone for their support. Ukraine deserves a decent peace, and whether there will be peace depends on Russia, on our general pressure on Russia, on the correct negotiating positions of the United States of America, Europe, and all our other partners. Russia must be responsible for what it does: for daily strikes, for constant terror against our people, and in general for this war,” Zelensky said.
Context
The Ukrainian and US delegations have already held seven rounds of negotiations on a “peace plan” for resolving the Russian-Ukrainian war. In parallel, the United States is discussing this with the Russian Federation, in particular, there was a five-hour meeting between Vitkoff and Kushner with the illegitimate President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Trump expressed the opinion that Putin “would like to end the war.” However, then Putin said that the Russian Federation would allegedly “in any case” seize the Ukrainian Donbass and other territories of southern Ukraine – “militarily or otherwise.” Putin's new statements indicate that he does not intend to retreat from his maximalist goals in the war against Ukraine, Politico explained.
In transcripts of telephone conversations between European leaders published on December 4 by Spiegel, the latter questioned US peacekeeping initiatives. EU leaders allegedly warned Zelensky that the US could betray Ukraine and Europe, and called on him to be “extremely careful in the coming days.”
The media reported that there are three pillars on which the Russian Federation will not agree to a compromise in peace negotiations on Ukraine: the territory of Donbass, limiting the number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and recognition of the occupied territories of Ukraine by America and Europe.
