Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a ‘just and enduring’ peace with Russia following a meeting with Donald Trump in Paris.
In crunch talks with the US President-elect – who has vowed to end the conflict ‘in a day’ when he takes office next year – Zelensky appeared to soften his position on possible peace negotiations.
Mr Trump yesterday took to social media to call for an immediate ceasefire and claimed Kyiv ‘would like to make a deal’ to end a war that has now lasted more than 1,000 days.
Their surprise meeting had been organised at the Élysée Palace by Emmanuel Macron ahead of the reopening of Notre-Dame, to discuss future cooperation on ‘defence and offence’.
Speaking after the talks, Mr Zelensky said he and Mr Trump agreed to purse a ‘just peace’ and even repeated the billionaire’s mantra ‘peace through strength’.
He said: ‘We all want this war to end as soon as possible and in a just way. We spoke about our people, the situation on the ground, and a just peace.’
There is much at stake for Mr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people when Mr Trump begins his second term in the White House.
A long-time critic of US involvement in foreign conflicts, he has indicated he would be prepared to pare back financial support for the Ukrainian war effort.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a ‘just and enduring’ peace with Russia following a meeting with Donald Trump
Trump yesterday took to social media to call for an immediate ceasefire and claimed Kyiv ‘would like to make a deal’ to end a war (pictured together in New York on September 27)
Putin is seen delivering a threat to the West about the capabilities of his latest missiles
A serviceman of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’s 24th Mechanized Brigade fires his weapon in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine on November 29
In this photo taken from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on December 3, a Russian navy frigate launches a Zircon hypersonic cruise missile during drills
Military aid from the US has been crucial in sustaining Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invaders, with a new $1 billion (£780million) support package announced this weekend by the outgoing Biden administration.
Zelensky has previously played down any prospect of peace talks with the Kremlin, which he fears would inevitably require occupied areas of eastern Ukraine to be ceded to Vladimir Putin.
Nonetheless, the Ukrainian leader told reporters on Saturday that his meeting with Mr Trump had been ‘constructive’.
Yesterday, Mr Trump claimed on his Truth Social platform that Moscow and Kyiv have both lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers in a war that ‘should never have started’.
Calling on Mr Putin to act to bring the fighting to an end, Mr Trump said: ‘There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives are being needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed.’
Ukrainian soldier during infantry training in a building at an undetermined location in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on December 2
Ukrainian servicemen of the mobile air defense unit fire a machine gun at Russian drones during night patrol on December 2
A drone view shows an apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Ternopil, Ukraine on December 2
In a separate social media update on Sunday, Mr Zelensky asserted that Kyiv has so far lost 43,000 soldiers since Moscow’s all-out invasion on February 24, 2022, while a further 370,000 have been injured.
Both Russia and Ukraine have been reluctant to publish official casualty figures, but Western officials have said the past few months of grinding positional warfare in eastern Ukraine have meant record losses for both sides, with tens of thousands killed and injured each month.
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