Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to London to meet the European allies as his allies look to strengthen Ukraine’s hand in talks on a US-backed plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post that the talks had been “substantive”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was meeting the French, German and British leaders on Monday in London as Ukraine’s European allies look to strengthen Ukraine’s hand in thorny talks on a US-backed plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz were due to meet Zelenskyy at the British leader’s 10 Downing St. residence.
According to the Ukrainian President, his talks with the European allies this week would be around security, air defence and long-term funding for Ukraine’s war effort. Meanwhile, the leaders are working to ensure that any ceasefire comes with strong security guaranteesโfrom both Europe and the United Statesโto deter Russia from launching future attacks.
Zelenskyy said in a Telegram post that the talks had been โsubstantiveโ and that National Security and Defence Council Secretary Rustem Umerov and Chief of the General Staff Andrii Hnatov were on their way back to Europe to brief him.
A major obstacle in the proposal is the idea that Ukraine should surrender control of its eastern Donbas region to Russia, which illegally occupies mostโbut not allโof the area.
Ukraine and its European partners have firmly rejected the notion of giving up territory. Starmer said he โwon’t be putting pressureโ on Zelenskyy to accept any particular peace deal.
Trump says Zelenskyy ‘hasn’t read’ US proposal to end war
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump claimed that Zelenskyy ‘hasn’t read’ the US-authored proposal to end the nearly four-year-long war. “I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelenskyy hasn’t yet read the proposal, which was as of a few hours ago. His people love it. But he hasn’t – Russia’s fine with it,” Trump told reporters on the red carpet at the Kennedy Centre Honours. “Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure that Zelenskyy’s fine with it. His people love it, but he hasn’t read it,” Trump said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also hasn’t publicly expressed approval for the White House plan. In fact, Putin last week had said that aspects of Trump’s proposal were unworkable, even though the original draft heavily favoured Moscow.
With Agency Inputs