European leaders rallied to show support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday after U.S.-Ukrainian talks to revise a peace proposal that initially favoured Russia, while Donald Trump’s envoy headed to Moscow to brief the Kremlin.
Zelenskiy was warmly received by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, and the two joined a call with about a dozen other European leaders including those of Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland and the EU.
“The war must end as soon as possible. Much now depends on the involvement of every leader,” Zelenskiy posted on X. Macron posted a picture of himself and the Ukrainian leader striding in front of an honour guard at the Elysee Palace.
Earlier, Zelenskiy made clear that Ukrainian and U.S. negotiators had not yet fully hammered out revisions to a proposed U.S. peace plan, despite two rounds of talks to adjust terms that initially endorsed Russia’s main wartime demands.
There were “some tough issues that still have to be worked through”, Zelenskiy posted following Sunday’s U.S.-Ukrainian talks, held at a Florida luxury golf resort built by Trump’s envoy and fellow real estate magnate Steve Witkoff.
Witkoff left the talks to travel to Moscow where he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials have yet to make public any amendments they have so far agreed to the 28-point plan which Washington presented to Kyiv less than two weeks ago.
Kyiv and its European allies have been pushing for revisions to terms, which called for Ukraine to give up more territory, curb the size of its army, renounce joining NATO and be barred from hosting Western troops. Ukraine says that would amount to capitulation, and leave it prone to eventual conquest by Russia, which invaded in 2014 and 2022.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who hosted the talks at Witkoff’s Shell Bay club near Miami, said on Sunday Washington was “realistic about how difficult this is, but optimistic, particularly given the fact that as we’ve made progress”.
“There’s more work to be done. This is delicate,” Rubio said. “There are a lot of moving parts, and obviously there’s another party involved here … that will have to be a part of the equation, and that will continue later this week, when Mr. Witkoff travels to Moscow.”
DIFFICULT JUNCTURE FOR KYIV
The intensified negotiations have arrived at a difficult juncture for Kyiv, which has been losing ground at the front while facing the biggest corruption scandal of the war.
Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, who had also led the Ukrainian delegation at peace talks, resigned on Friday after anti-corruption investigators searched his home. Two cabinet ministers have been fired and a former business partner of Zelenskiy has been named as a suspect.
Trump, who promised to swiftly end the war, has expressed frustration that a deal seems to be elusive.
“Ukraine’s got some difficult little problems,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, referring to the corruption scandal. He repeated his view that both Russia and Ukraine wanted to end the war and said there was a good chance a deal could be reached.
RUSSIA BOMBARDS UKRAINIAN CITIES
Meanwhile, Russia has shown no sign of backing off its maximalist demands while its forces continue to make slow progress on the 1,200 km (750 mile) front line.
At least four people were killed and 40 wounded, 11 of them in serious condition, when Russian missiles struck car repair shops in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Monday.
“Everyone fell to the floor, then we started to figure out where the employees were. I ran upstairs and saw that one guy was fine, but he was a bit covered in shrapnel,” said Vitalii Kovalenko, owner of one service station, adding that all his employees survived.
Pictures posted on Telegram showed firefighters at the site, emergency workers evacuating people on stretchers and a body in a black bag.
Russia said on Monday its forces had captured another settlement in eastern Ukraine, Klynove in the Donetsk region. Reuters could not independently verify the situation there. Moscow has been saying it is on the verge of seizing the ruined city of Pokrovsk, its biggest prize in nearly two years.
Meanwhile, it has been bombarding Ukrainian cities nightly with long-range strikes, mainly targeting energy infrastructure, leaving Ukrainians in frequent cold and darkness as the war’s fourth winter sets in.
Ukraine, for its part, has been launching long-range strikes to target Russia’s oil exports. On Monday the Kremlin denounced Ukrainian attacks on a Russian oil-exporting terminal that serves a pipeline from Kazakhstan, and on two tankers in the Black Sea. REUTERS
