Ukraine seeks to shore up support in Brussels, Paris

As Ukrainian and European defense chiefs gathered in Brussels for discussions centered on Ukrainian and collective security, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris to bolster support for Kyiv.

The meetings took place on Monday as a result of a diplomatic blitz to put an end to Russia’s nearly four-year-old conflict in Ukraine.

The two presidents would talk about the prerequisites for a “just and lasting peace,” according to Macron’s office before the meeting.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot stated that the meeting was meant to “move the negotiations forward” in a statement to La Tribune Dimanche newspaper on Sunday.

If Russian President Vladimir Putin abandons his conceited plan to resurrect the Soviet empire by first annexing Ukraine, he said, “Peace is within reach.”

Ministers of the EU

According to Hashem Alhelbarra, a reporter from Brussels who was present at a meeting of the defense ministers of the European Union who was also present with Denys Shmyhal, the country’s defense minister, wanted a “pact where no part of Ukraine being handed over to Russia as the price they have to pay for a permanent deal.”

The bloc is concerned about a “blanket amnesty,” which would prevent Russian officials from facing charges for crimes committed in Ukraine, Alhelbarra added.

Following a day of talks between Ukrainian and American negotiators in Florida on Sunday, Zelenskyy announced on social media that he had informed Finland’s President Alexander Stubb of the “signals we have received from the American side.”

The Ukrainian leader added that, in line with Mark Rutte and Ursula von der Leyen, the situation is crucial and there is still room for improvement.

Zelenskyy noted that there are still “some tough issues that need to be worked through” during the talks between US and Ukrainian negotiators in the US on Sunday.

It is a step forward from the original 28-point peace proposal, which it and its allies in Europe, for Kyiv.

There is a good chance we can make a deal, the US president declared on Air Force One on Sunday.

He added that Ukraine has “some difficult little problems” as well. In response to a corruption scandal in the energy sector, Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff and Ukraine’s top negotiator, resigned two days prior.

More work is required.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, praised the success of the Florida talks, adding that “there is still work to be done.”

There are a lot of moving parts, he said, and there is obviously another party involved, which will have to be a part of the situation, which will continue with Mr. Witkoff’s trip to Moscow later this week.

Rory Challands, a reporter from Kyiv, claimed that Rubio, the country’s most amiable senior official under the Trump administration, was in charge of the negotiations.

The situation seems to be going well for the Ukrainians because Rubio appears to be driving the car right now, Challands said.

He argued, however, that caution was required given Trump’s unpredictable nature and Russia’s unwillingness to follow through on the most recent draft peace plan.

Putin has stated that he will only end the conflict once Ukrainian troops leave four of the regions that Russia illegally annexed in 2022 but still maintains a maximalist grip.

“We’ll use force to achieve this if they don’t withdraw,” he says. That is it, the Russian president said last week.

When they meet in the Russian capital on Tuesday afternoon, US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will talk about the most recent draft peace agreement.

Russians’ reporter from Moscow Yulia Shapovalova reported that the country generally does not enjoy their visit.

Polls indicate that the majority of Russians “really want an end to the conflict as soon as possible,” according to Shapovalova. On the other hand, Steve Witkoff’s visit doesn’t inspire much interest, she continued.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced on Monday that its troops had taken control of the Donetsk settlement in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Independent verification of the announcement was not possible.

deadly attack on Dnipro

According to Vladyslav Gaivanenko, the acting governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, at least four people were killed and 40 others were hurt, 11 of whom were critically, in a Monday Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

According to Dnipro’s mayor Borys Filatov, the strike damaged four residential high-rises and a city center educational facility. He added that there are still ongoing searches and rescue operations.

Before the Dnipro attack, Russia launched 89 strike and decoy drones overnight, with 63 of them being shot down or encircled, according to Ukraine.

Source: Aljazeera