US-Ukraine talks can be held in Saudi Arabia next week, President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated, expressing hopes that it’ll be “a significant assembly.”.
The Ukrainian leader, who will be in the Gulf state but not participate in the talks, stated Kyiv was working to reach a “fast and lasting” peace.
US President Donald Trump’s unique envoy, Steve Witkoff, stated the American team desired to talk about a “framework” for peace to try to cease the Russia-Ukraine war.
Last Friday, Zelensky and Trump were involved in a public clash on the White House, during which Trump stated Zelensky became not ready to give up the preventing. The US proceeded to pause army aid to Ukraine and stop sharing intelligence.
The Ukrainian president has expressed remorse about the incident and attempted to restore family members with the United States, the US’s largest military provider.
On Thursday, Witkoff said Trump had acquired a letter from Zelensky that blanketed an “apology” and “sense of gratitude.”.
“Hopefully, we get things back heading in the right direction with the Ukrainians, and everything resumes,” Witkoff stated.
Zelensky has been under strong US strain to make concessions beforehand of any peace talks, while the Ukrainian president has been pushing for company security guarantees for Kyiv.
Russia launched a complete-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and now controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
The preventing maintains, with Ukraine on Thursday night time reporting a “large missile and drone” assault on its energy infrastructure.
The Polish navy additionally stated it was forced to scramble fighter jets and activate floor-primarily based air defence structures amid the attack, which threatened regions as some distance as western Ukraine.
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Zelensky announced the USA-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia in a series of posts on social media after attending Thursday’s disaster summit in Brussels, where European Union leaders encouraged plans for a boost in defence spending.
“Ukrainian and American groups have resumed paintings, and we hope that subsequent week we can have a meaningful meeting,” he wrote on X.
“Ukraine has been in search of peace since the first actual moment of the struggle, and we’ve continually stated that the warfare keeps solely due to Russia.”
Zelensky entreated the worldwide network to position greater pressure on Moscow so it “accepts the want to give up” the war.
He additionally made an obvious connection with a truce plan mentioned in advance this week by French President Emmanuel Macron, which proposed a ceasefire inside the air and at sea and a give-up to attacks on energy and different civilian infrastructure.
Russia has not publicly commented on the French proposals.
On Thursday, Putin said Moscow turned into seeking a peace “that would make sure calmness for our united states inside the lengthy-term angle.
“We do not need anything that belongs to others, but we might not surrender something that belongs to us both,” the Kremlin chief added.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated he hopes a “truthful, lasting, binding peace settlement that every facet can accept” will be struck.
Russia annexed Ukraine’s southern Crimea peninsula in 2014 and claims any other four Ukrainian regions inside the southeast as its very own—even though Moscow doesn’t completely control them.
Ukraine and its European allies have in the latest weeks expressed alarm over what many on the continent see as Donald Trump’s overtures to Russia.
Trump vowed at some stage in the American election marketing campaign to carry the warfare to a quit speedy, and preliminary US-Russian talks were held in Saudi Arabia last month—without European or Ukrainian
- War in Ukraine
- Volodymyr Zelensky
- Russia
- Vladimir Putin
- Saudi Arabia
- Ukraine