Zelenskiy says ‘tough issues’ remain, meets Macron
European leaders gathered to show support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy following talks to review a US-Ukraine peace proposal as a US envoy traveled to Russia to brief the Kremlin.
Zelenskiy was warmly welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday, and the pair attended a meeting with nearly a dozen European leaders, including Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland and the European Union.
At a joint press conference after his meeting with Macron, Zelenskiy said that Ukraine’s priorities in peace talks are to preserve sovereignty and provide strong security guarantees, and that territorial disputes remain the most complex issue.
He called on Ukraine’s allies to ensure Russia was not rewarded for the war it started, and said he hoped to hold talks with US President Donald Trump after Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has visited Russia this week.
Macron told reporters that only Ukraine can decide on its territory in peace talks with Russia.
Zelenskiy had previously made clear that Ukrainian and US negotiators had not yet fully finalized revisions to the proposed US plan, despite two rounds of talks to arrange terms that initially reportedly approved Russia’s wartime demands.
“There were still some difficult issues that needed to be worked out,” Zelenskiy said Sunday after US-Ukraine talks held at a luxury golf resort built by Trump’s real estate mogul Witkoff in Florida.
Witkoff left the talks on Tuesday to go to Moscow, where he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials have yet to publicly announce the changes they have agreed upon so far in the 28-point plan that the United States presented to Ukraine less than two weeks ago.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that the United States was “realistic about how difficult this is, but optimistic, especially given the fact that we are making progress.”
“There’s more work to be done. This is a sensitive issue,” Rubio said.
“There are a lot of moving parts, and of course there’s another side involved here… that will be part of the equation, and that will continue when Mr. Witkoff goes to Moscow this week.”
The intensifying negotiations have come to a difficult turn for the Ukrainian government, which is losing power on the eastern front while facing the biggest corruption scandal of the war.
Zelenskiy’s private secretary, who also led the Ukrainian delegation in the peace talks, resigned on Friday after anti-corruption investigators searched his home.
Two cabinet ministers were dismissed and a former business associate of Zelenskiy was also named as a suspect.
“Ukraine has some tough little problems,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, referring to the corruption scandal.
He reiterated his view that both Russia and Ukraine want to end the war and said there was a good chance an agreement could be reached.
At least four people were killed and 40 injured when Russian missiles hit car repair shops in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Monday, local officials said.
“Everyone fell to the ground, then we started to figure out where the employees were. I ran upstairs and saw that one guy was okay but covered in some shrapnel,” said Vitalii Kovalenko, the owner of a service station, adding that all his employees survived.
Russia said on Monday that its forces had captured Klynove, another settlement in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Reuters could not independently verify the situation there.
Russia has been bombing Ukrainian cities every night with long-range strikes targeting mainly energy infrastructure, often leaving Ukrainians cold and in the dark as the fourth winter of the war approaches.
Ukraine, on the other hand, is organizing long-range attacks to target Russia’s oil exports.
The Kremlin on Monday condemned Ukraine’s attacks on a Russian oil export terminal serving a pipeline from Kazakhstan and two tankers in the Black Sea.
