(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that no consensus had been reached on key territorial questions as part of a possible peace settlement with Russia, following two days of talks between Ukrainian, American and European negotiators in Berlin, Germany.
“In other issues, there is progress forward,” Zelenskyy said in comments in a group chat with Ukrainian reporters after the talks ended.
U.S. administration officials signaled on Monday that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine may be closer than ever, telling reporters on the condition of anonymity that “literally 90%” of the issues between the two warring countries had been solved.
Ukraine’s demand for U.S.-backed security guarantees and the fates of four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions have dominated the most recent American push for a peace settlement to end Russia’s full-scale invasion, which it launched in February 2022.
Russia occupies Crimea — which was occupied in 2014 — and partially occupies Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, in the south and east of Ukraine. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk — which together form the region known as the Donbas — in exchange for an end to the fighting.
Zelenskyy on Monday reiterated Ukraine’s position that it does not want to cede the Donbas region to Russia. The president also said that a demilitarized area or “free economic zone” covering the region cannot be under Russian leadership.
“These are important features for me in any format for Donbas,” Zelenskyy said. “Neither de jure nor de facto will we recognize Donbas as Russian — the part that is temporarily occupied. But nevertheless, we are discussing the issue regarding the territories, and you know that it is one of the key ones.”
Zelenskyy hinted at progress on the issue of Western security guarantees to deter future Russian aggression, without which Kyiv says it cannot agree to a peace deal.
German Chancellor Freidrich Merz said after Monday’s talks, “The legal and material guarantees that the U.S. has put on the table here in Berlin are truly remarkable. This is a very important step forward, which I very much welcome.”
Merz also suggested that Ukraine and Russia agree to a Chrismtas truce, a proposal Zelenskyy said he supports.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told ABC News during an exclusive interview on Monday that he believes the warring parties are “on the verge” of a diplomatic solution to end Moscow’s war.
“We are prepared to have a deal,” Ryabkov said. The deputy foreign minister added that he hoped an agreement would be reached “sooner rather than later.”
More meetings are expected in the coming days, Zelenskyy said, including between American and Russian negotiators. Ukrainian representatives are expecting to travel to the U.S. for further talks “in the near future,” Zelenskyy said, possibly as soon as this weekend.
Ukraine and Russia continued to exchange long-range strikes on Monday and overnight into Tuesday, with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) also on Monday claiming an underwater drone attack on a Russian submarine docked at the port of Novorossiysk.
Ukraine’s air force said on Tuesday that Russia launched 69 drones into the country overnight, of which 57 were shot down or suppressed. Ten strike drones impacted across seven locations, the air force said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed 111 Ukrainian drones overnight into Tuesday morning, including four over the Moscow region.
On Tuesday morning, Zelenskyy addressed the Dutch parliament, telling lawmakers, “We are now in the midst of the most intense and focussed negotiations for peace since the beginning of this war … For true lasting peace. We are not talking about a pause or a temporary, uncertain solution.”
Zelenskyy again urged accountability for Moscow. “Someone else is always expected to make concessions so that Russia will stop spreading bloodshed,” he said. “In Russia’s war against our people, our country, this logic has reached its largest and most dangerous scale.”
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