Zelenskyy says the US often asks Ukraine, not Russia, for permission, before peace talks in Geneva.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed hope on Saturday that next week’s US-hosted peace talks in Geneva will be significant, but said Ukraine has been asked “repeatedly” to make a deal.
He also accused Moscow of seeking to delay decisions by changing the lead negotiations.
Envoys from Ukraine, Russia and the United States will meet in the Swiss lakeside town on Tuesday and Wednesday as US President Donald Trump seeks to pass a deal to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945.
“We really hope that the trilateral meetings next week will be something serious, powerful, useful for all of us. But, honestly, sometimes it seems that the parties are talking about completely different things,” said Zelenskyy in a speech at the annual Munich Security Conference.
Zelenskyy wants more sanctions, weapons supplies
Ukraine and Russia, which attacked its neighbor in February 2022, held two recent talks organized by Washington in Abu Dhabi. The parties are described as constructive but not very successful.
Zelenskyy called for more action from Ukraine’s allies to pressure Russia into making peace – both in the form of tougher sanctions against Moscow and more arms supplies to his country.
Recalling his request four years ago – when he spoke on the same day of the conference before tens of thousands of Russian troops poured into Ukraine – Zelenskyy said there was too much talk by Western officials and not enough action.
Trump has the power to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to declare a ceasefire and he needs to do so, Zelenskyy said. Ukrainian officials have said a ceasefire is needed to hold a referendum on any peace deal, which would be held in conjunction with national elections.
US President Donald Trump says he got Russian President Vladimir Putin to slow down attacks on Ukraine’s power grid during the coldest winter in years. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested that Russia is simply shifting its focus.
The leader of Ukraine, who was a television host, admitted that he feels “a little” pressure from Trump, who said on Friday that Zelenskyy should not miss the “opportunity” to make peace soon and urged him “to go.”
“The Americans often return to the subject of concessions and usually that concession is negotiated only in Ukraine, not in Russia,” Zelenskyy said.
Instead, Zelenskyy said, he wants to hear what compromises Moscow will be ready for, since Ukraine has already done a lot for itself.
Russia said its delegation to Geneva will be led by Putin adviser Vladimir Medinsky, a change from the talks in Abu Dhabi, where the Russian delegation was led by intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov.
Zelenskyy told reporters on Saturday that the change was a “miracle” for Ukraine, and suggested to him that Russia wanted to delay any agreed decisions.
Ukrainian officials have criticized Medinsky’s handling of past talks, accusing him of bringing history lessons to the Ukrainian party instead of engaging in constructive dialogue.
Deadlock in place
The world remains a strong point in the talks, with Russia demanding that Ukraine hand over the remaining 20 percent of the eastern Donetsk region that Moscow has failed to take – something Kyiv has steadfastly refused to do.
At a press conference on Saturday, Zelenskyy said that US negotiators had told Ukraine that the Russians had promised an immediate end to the war if Ukrainian troops immediately withdrew from the part of Donetsk that they still control.
He previously said he was ready to discuss the US proposal for a free trade zone in the region, while freezing the entire 1,200 km front.
Ukraine’s chief negotiator Rustem Umerov, who sat next to Zelenskyy during the press conference, said there were only two options for Ukraine to stick to current control lines, or to establish a free economic zone.
Russia occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine’s national territory, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region that were seized before a full-scale invasion in 2022.
Analysts say Moscow has gained about 1.5 percent of Ukraine’s territory by early 2024. Its recent airstrikes on Ukrainian cities and electricity infrastructure have left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without heat and power amid a bitter winter.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly expressed concern in recent weeks that the US midterm elections in November could focus the Trump administration on domestic political issues after the summer.
Zelenskyy said he hopes that the US will remain involved in the negotiations, and that there will be an opportunity for Europe, which he said is sidelined at the moment, to play a bigger role.
“Europe is not on the table. It’s a big mistake in my mind,” he said.
Zelenskyy said that Russia should have accepted the task of monitoring the ceasefire and the exchange of prisoners of war; he estimated that Russia currently has about 7,000 Ukrainian troops and Kyiv has more than 4,000 Russians.
He also suggested that Moscow was against sending French and British troops to Ukraine after the war – which Paris and London say they are willing to do – because Putin “wants to have a chance to come back.”
