President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made the case on Monday for a diplomatic settlement to Russia’s war in Ukraine and raised the idea of foreign troops being deployed in his country until it could join the NATO military alliance.
The remarks at a joint press conference with German opposition leader Friedrich Merz were the latest to signal Kyiv’s increasing openness to war negotiations, with Donald Trump preparing to return to the White House on January 20.
The U.S. president-elect, who has said he wants to end the war quickly, called on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations to end the “madness”, after he met Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron for talks in Paris.
“Ukraine wants this war to end more than anyone else. No doubt, a diplomatic resolution would save more lives. We do seek it,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Monday.
He said he discussed a “freezing” of the lines in the war when he met Macron and Trump. Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory after launching the 2022 invasion that unleashed the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two.
Zelenskyy said he told the two leaders that he did not believe Putin actually wanted to end the war and that the Russian president would need to be forced.
“You can only exert force if Ukraine is strong. A strong Ukraine before any diplomacy means a strong (Ukraine) on the battlefield,” he said, implying Kyiv needed help to become stronger.
He received a rhetorical boost from Merz, the frontrunner in the election race to become Germany’s next chancellor, who used his visit to liken Berlin’s current policy to making Ukraine fight with one arm tied behind its back.
Zelenskyy also returned to an idea raised in February by Macron, who floated the possibility of European nations sending troops to Ukraine. There was no consensus on the matter among the European leaders.
Kyiv, which has made a concerted push to obtain an invitation to join NATO, has insisted throughout the war that it needs security guarantees to prevent Russia launching another invasion once the current hostilities are halted.
Russia has demanded that Ukraine abandon its NATO ambitions and sees Kyiv’s membership of the alliance as an unacceptable security threat.
Zelenskyy told reporters he was hoping to call outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden in the coming days to discuss NATO membership.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
