The talks should occur during a ceasefire, the Ukrainian leader said
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has said that he is ready for negotiations with Russia but only after a ceasefire along the current front lines.
Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday and had earlier backed his call to have the troops “stop where they are.”
“Yes, I agree. If we want to stop this war and to go to peace negotiations, urgently and in a diplomatic way, we need to stay where we stay,” Zelensky told Kristen Welker in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press aired on Sunday. He added that Kiev should not surrender “additional” territory to Russia.
Zelensky said he was ready for talks “in any format, bilateral, trilateral,” but once the fighting was stopped. “Not under missiles, not under drones,” he said. Asked if he would push for an invitation to Trump’s planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, Zelensky replied, “I’m ready.”
The Ukrainian leader confirmed that Trump had so far declined to provide Kiev with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Russia has said that, for a ceasefire to work, Ukraine must withdraw its troops from parts of Russian territory it controls, halt mobilization, and stop receiving military aid from abroad. Moscow also demanded that Ukraine recognize Russia’s new borders and abandon plans to join NATO.
Putin said that he was ready to meet with Zelensky but only after a peace treaty was ready for signing.
