Russia cannot be stopped with talks

Ukraine war

Zelenskyj: Russia cannot be stopped with talks

With great expectations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to the USA for talks in the White House. He didn’t get the cruise missiles he was hoping for – and Moscow renewed its demand.

After a visit to Washington, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused war opponents Russia of delaying efforts to end the fighting. “The war only continues because Moscow doesn’t want to end it,” the head of state wrote on Telegram. He reiterated that Kyiv had already agreed to an “unconditional ceasefire”. It is Moscow that continues to carry out air strikes and increases attacks on the front line. “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin cannot be stopped with talks – pressure is needed.”

Zelenskyj returned from a visit to US President Donald Trump on Saturday. During the two-hour-long talks in the White House, Zelensky was unable to achieve the desired release of long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles for his country. Other hoped-for commitments from the US side also failed to materialize.

Shortly before the visit, Trump had a telephone conversation with Kremlin leader Putin and announced an imminent meeting in Hungary. Trump has long tried to intervene as a mediator in the Ukraine war, so far without much success.

The CDU security politician Roderich Kiesewetter criticized Trump for not releasing a tomahawk delivery for Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia. “His goal is to achieve a peace agreement at any price. For him, it is not about peace in freedom and self-determination for Ukraine, but about a ceasefire in the interests of the aggressor Russia,” said Kiesewetter to the German Press Agency, referring to the planned meeting between Trump and Russian President Putin.

The political scientist and security expert Christian Mölling told the “Tagesspiegel”: “It seems as if Trump is delaying the delivery of the tomahawks – also because he thinks that this gives him leverage.”

According to a media report, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin is said to have demanded the cession of the strategically important Donetsk region from Ukraine in his telephone conversation with Trump as a condition for an end to the Russian war of aggression. In return, Moscow is said to be willing to give up parts of two other regions partly occupied by Russia, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, the Washington Post reported, citing two people who were aware of the content of Thursday’s phone call.

During the invasion that began more than three and a half years ago, Russia has almost completely captured the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk and partially captured the Kremlin-claimed areas of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Previously, Putin had reportedly called for Kiev to completely abandon the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in order to freeze the front in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

According to the newspaper report, some officials in the White House now presented the new demand for Donetsk as progress, since it was now only about Donetsk. Zelensky did not explicitly respond to the demand on Sunday, but said: “We will not give anything to the aggressor.” Russia has controlled the Crimean peninsula, which is also claimed by Moscow, since 2014.