Zelensky | Pakistan

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that the presence of foreign troops in Ukraine after the war with Russia ends was “important” as Kyiv seeks to work on potential security guarantees with its Western allies. The issue of on-the-ground “presence, as they say, boots on the ground, is important to us,” Zelensky said, speaking alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who visited Kyiv as it celebrated Ukrainian Independence Day against a backdrop of fading hopes for recent peace efforts. Carney said earlier that it was not up to Russia to decide on potential security guarantees for Ukraine that Kyiv seeks from Western allies for when the war ends. “It’s not the choice of Russia how the future sovereignty, independence and liberty of Ukraine is guaranteed. It’s the choice of Ukraine and the decisions of the partners,” Carney told reporters on his visit to Kyiv. Earlier today, Ukraine launched a wave of drone strikes on Russia, triggering a fire at a nuclear power plant. After a flurry of d...

Russia on Friday ruled out an immediate meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as diplomatic tension with him escalated and US mediation efforts appeared to stall. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “no meeting” between President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky was planned, as Nato chief Mark Rutte visited Kyiv, largely to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine. United States President Donald Trump had raised expectations for a swift summit between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents by saying earlier in the week they had agreed to meet, but on Friday compared the two men to “oil and vinegar”. “They don’t get along too well, for obvious reasons,” he told reporters in Washington. Lavrov also poured cold water on hopes for direct Putin-Zelensky talks to resolve the conflict, now in its fourth year, by questioning the Ukrainian president’s legitimacy and repeating the Kremlin’s maximalist claims. “There is no meeting planned,” Lavrov said in an interview with NBC’s ‘Meet the Press with Krist...

United States President Donald Trump said on Monday that if his meeting with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky went well, he expected to hold a trilateral meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin with the goal of ending the Ukraine-Russia war. Trump is pushing Ukraine to make major concessions following his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week, saying Kyiv must give up Crimea and abandon its Nato ambitions. Those are two of Moscow’s top demands. But Zelensky, who huddled with the Europeans before they all went to the White House to meet Trump, urged Trump to bring “peace through strength” against Russia and stressed the need for United States security guarantees. “We’re going to have a meeting. I think if everything works out well today, we’ll have a trilat (trilateral summit) and I think there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that,” said Trump, sitting alongside Zelensky at the White House. “I just spoke to President Putin indirectly and we’re goin...

European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a Monday visit to Washington to see President Donald Trump in a collective bid to find a way to end to Moscow’s invasion, with the US offering security guarantees for Kyiv. The meeting follows a summit in Alaska between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that […]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due in London to meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, to take stock ahead of US President Donald Trump’s key talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Zelensky, who was in Germany on Wednesday, has been working with European leaders to press Trump not to allow Putin to carve up Ukraine’s territory at the Alaska summit. He is due to meet Starmer at 9:30am local time (1:30pm PKT) at the British premier’s official residence, 10 Downing Street. On Wednesday, Trump joined a Germany-hosted virtual meeting with European leaders, including Zelensky, who sought to set red lines ahead of the summit on ending the war in Ukraine. Zelensky said he warned Trump that the Russian leader was “bluffing” about his desire to end the war. Trump later threatened “severe consequences” if Putin does not agree to peace in Ukraine and while he did not specify what the consequences could be, he has warned of economic sanctions if his meeting on Friday pro...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday warned that “decisions without Ukraine” would not bring peace and ruled out ceding territory to Russia. “Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” he said on social media, as United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin prepare to hold a summit next week in Alaska to discuss peace in Ukraine. “Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace. They will achieve nothing,” he said, adding that the war “cannot be ended without us, without Ukraine”. Zelensky said Ukraine was “ready for real decisions that can bring peace” but said it should be a “dignified peace”, without giving details. Later, Zelensky wrote in a post on X that he exchanged views on a “diplomatic solution” to the conflict with French President Emmanuel Macron. Expressing gratitude for France’s support, the Ukrainian leader wrote: “Ukraine, France, and all our partners are ready to work as productively as possible fo...

Russia and Ukraine will hold new peace talks in Turkey Wednesday as a follow-up to two rounds in Istanbul that made little progress on ending their war, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced. While US President Donald Trump has increased the pressure by giving Russia 50 days to agree on a deal or face sanctions, Zelensky spoke […]

Russia and Ukraine will hold new peace talks on Wednesday as a follow-up to two rounds in Istanbul that made little progress on ending their war, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced. “Today, I discussed with [Ukrainian Security Council chief] Rustem Umerov the preparations for the exchange and another meeting in Turkey with the Russian side. Umerov reported that the meeting is scheduled for Wednesday,” Zelensky said in his daily address on Monday. He added that more details would be released on Tuesday. The rival sides met in Istanbul on May 16 and June 2 amid US pressure to agree on a ceasefire. Despite the urging of US President Donald Trump, no breakthrough was made. Ukrainian and Russian negotiators have so far only agreed to hold prisoner exchanges. And Russia has since launched intense air attacks on Ukraine and seized more frontline territory. Russia has demanded that Ukraine give up four regions, on top of Crimea, which it annexed in 2014. The Kremlin also insists that Ukraine give up any idea of j...

The Kremlin on Wednesday rebuffed a call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a three-way summit with counterparts Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as Kyiv seeks to force Moscow to halt its more than three-year-long invasion. Moscow said any meeting involving Russian President Putin and Zelensky would only happen after “concrete agreements” had been struck between negotiators from each side. Putin rejected calls to meet Zelensky in Turkey earlier this month, when Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks in three years. Putin has repeatedly said he does not see Zelensky as a legitimate leader and called for him to be toppled. US President Trump, meanwhile, has expressed frustration at both leaders for not yet striking a deal to end the war. The two sides have traded waves of massive aerial attacks in recent weeks, with Ukraine unleashing one of its largest-ever drone barrages on Russia overnight, according to the defence ministry in Moscow. “If Putin is not comfortable with a bilateral me...