A ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia “is not a topic of discussion” with Kiev’s allies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Paris on Thursday, after a meeting with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
“We did not discuss a ceasefire”, the Ukrainian president insisted to the press, who demanded a rapid increase in Western aid. “Winter is coming, we need your help,” he said, while Ukraine’s energy system is partially destroyed by Russian bombings, and on the front in eastern Ukraine, Kiev’s troops are unable to stop the advance of the Russian army, which announces almost daily the occupation of some new towns.
According to some reports in the international press, Ukraine would be willing to accept a cease-fire along the current front line, without recognizing territorial losses, in exchange for security guarantees offered by the US and accession to the EU.
Asked about the reports on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia had received no signal of any desire by Kiev for a ceasefire. “There are many speculations and theories on this topic in the mass media”, indicated the Russian official, quoted by the EFE agency.
For his part, in the statement given to the press in Paris, President Zelenski attributed this information to Russian “disinformation”.
The French president assured his Ukrainian counterpart that the aid that France offers to Ukraine continues “according to commitments” and in this regard he emphasized the “progress in the training and equipping of a brigade” of the Ukrainian army.
Arriving in Paris from London, Zelenski will then travel to Rome and Berlin in a whirlwind European tour to present his main allies with a “victory plan”, which he first presented to the United States last month. The only detail that he revealed publicly about this plan is that it includes as a fundamental element the invitation of Ukraine to join NATO, admitting, however, that the accession will be possible only after the end of the war.
According to some US officials, the administration in Washington is concerned that this plan of the Ukrainian president does not include a comprehensive strategy and is little more than a repackaged request to receive more weapons and to lift restrictions that prevent striking the territory Russian with missiles received by Ukraine as military aid from the West. The plan starts from the assumption of a total defeat of Russia in the war, an objective considered unrealistic by some American officials, writes Reuters.
Source: www.cotidianul.ro
