Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US President Donald Trump’s envoys for talks on how to end the war with Russia, kicking off two days of crisis diplomacy in Berlin.
“We began our meeting,” Zelensky said on Facebook, posting pictures of the Ukrainian delegation joined by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the US representatives and NATO’s top commander in Europe, US General Alexus Grynkewich.
Today, Merz is due to again host Zelensky at a German-Ukrainian business conference before they will be joined for dinner by a group of European heads of state and government and the leaders of NATO and the European Union.
Trump has pushed for an end to the almost four-year-old conflict but key questions remain on territorial concessions, future security guarantees for Kyiv and whether Russia would agree to any proposal hammered out by the Europeans and Americans, according to AFP.
Merz was shown yesterday offering a “warm welcome” to Zelensky as well Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in a short video released by the chancellery.
Zelensky said: “We want a lasting peace in Ukraine. Difficult questions lie ahead of us, but we are determined to move forward.
“Ukrainian interests are also European interests.”
That came after Zelensky relinquished Ukraine’s bid to join NATO on December 13, ahead of the crunch peace talks, The Independent reported.
The Ukrainian President ditched his hopes to join the military alliance in what he said was a “compromise” to end the war with Russia.
In a major shift, Zelensky said Ukraine will instead ask for western security guarantees, which he said should be legally binding.
He also said he hoped the US would back the idea of freezing the front line where it is, rather than Ukraine ceding the entire Donbas region as Moscow demands, according to Le Monde.
“The fairest possible option is to ‘stay where we are’,” Zelensky told reporters in an online briefing. “This is true because it is a ceasefire … I know that Russia does not view this positively and I would like the Americans to support us on this issue.”
In Russia, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov cast doubt on the latest efforts, AFP reported.
“I think the contribution of both Ukrainians and Europeans to these documents is unlikely to be constructive, that’s the problem,” he said in a video message.
Ushakov said yesterday Moscow had not seen the latest documents but added: “If there are any relevant amendments, we will have very strong objections, since we have very clearly stated our position, which, it seems, was quite clear to the Americans,” according to Le Monde.
Under the latest US plan, Ukraine would join the EU as early as January 2027, a senior official familiar with the matter told AFP December 12 on condition of anonymity.
Zelensky said yesterday: “The most important thing is that the plan should be as fair as possible, first and foremost for Ukraine, because Russia started the war.”
The latest push in the efforts to put an end to the war came as Kyiv reported new aerial strikes on its territory.
According to its air force, Russia launched 138 drones and a ballistic missile overnight on December 12.
A Russian drone has hit “one of the hospitals in Kherson”, wounding two people, including a nurse, the regional administration said on Telegram.
At least 11 people were wounded in strikes on the Zaporizhzhia region, its Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
Separately, Ukraine’s navy accused Russia of deliberately attacking a civilian Turkish vessel carrying sunflower oil to Egypt with a drone earlier on the same day, The Independent reported.
