Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky again rejected this Monday (8) territorial concessions to Russia to conclude a peace agreement with the country that invaded his country in 2022.
“According to our laws, international law – and moral law – we do not have the right to give anything. This is what we are fighting for,” he said.
The statement was made in London, where once again the leaders of kyiv’s three main supporters, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, met with the president to discuss the American initiative Donald Trump.
This Tuesday (9), said Zelenski, a new proposal will be sent back to Washington, with 20 points that he did not detail — with the exception of the rejection of any territorial loss. Today, Vladimir Putin controls nearly 20% of Ukraine, including the areas he has already dominated since 2014 through the separatists in the east of the country and Crimea.
Trump’s effort is the third U.S. attempt to achieve at least a cease-fire, but the obstacles are nearly insurmountable. The first version of the text was written by Russian and American negotiators and was almost entirely pro-Moscow, although Putin did not acknowledge its authorship.
Zelensky trembled and asked for support from his European partners, leading to a new conversation. A more balanced version emerged that, according to available reports, advanced thorny issues such as recognition of territories currently in Russian hands and kyiv’s military neutrality.
Last week, it was the turn of Trump’s envoys, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, to go to the Kremlin to hear Moscow’s denials of the initiative and, according to Leaf » showed, further hardening his stance.
This new reality was discussed this weekend by American and Ukrainian negotiators in Miami, without major progress. Zelenski discussed it with Prime Ministers Keir Starmer, the host in London, and Friedrich Merz, whose Germany sought to play a leading role in the debate. French President Emmanuel Macron was also present.
Despite the support expressed in their words, they did not bring Zelensky the news he wanted to hear: that the 1.3 trillion reais of Russian reserves tied up by sanctions in Europe, almost entirely in Belgium, would be released to guarantee a loan to kyiv – the money would be used as reparations for the invasion.
This amount would cover government and military spending for two years, according to the plan proposed by the European Commission, but it arouses objections not only from the Kremlin, which likens it to theft, but also from Belgium itself, which fears being exposed to legal action.
Moreover, in the event of a peace agreement normalizing Russia’s relations with the international financial system, as Putin wants, the guarantees could end up being paid by the member countries of the European Union, and then many do not want to take risks.
The plan will be discussed by the leaders of the continental bloc on December 18 and 19, aiming to act on at least part of the identified reservations. The amount could also be used for a country reconstruction fund.
According to Starmer, the important thing is “to achieve a fair and permanent ceasefire”. The fundamental fear of Europeans is that Trump will force his hand in favor of Moscow’s conditions, while the continent has few resources, even if Macron affirms that “we still have several cards in hand”.
“The spirit of the Americans, in principle, is to find a compromise. Of course, there are complex issues related to territory, and consensus has not yet been reached on this point,” Zelenskiy said, describing the weekend’s discussions. He then traveled to Brussels to meet officials from the EU and NATO, the Western military alliance.
It seems quite difficult for Ukrainians to remain inflexible if they do not want to see the war continue. Putin is experiencing military advances, the most accelerated since the first year of the conflict. He’s not close to winning, as the hardliners around him claim, but he has a favorable scenario. This Monday, two other villages in eastern Ukraine were taken by Russian forces.
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