We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level - with President Trump in the near future. A lot can be decided before the New Year," Zelensky wrote on X on Friday morning after receiving a briefing from his top negotiator, Rustem Umerov. Ukrainian officials tell Axios that meeting will take place on Sunday. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has declared that his government was prepared to hold elections within three months if the United States and Kyiv's other allies can ensure the security of the voting process. Zelenskyy issued his statement on Tuesday as he faced renewed pressure from US President Donald Trump, who suggested in an interview with a news outlet that the Ukrainian government was using Russia's war on their country as an excuse to avoid elections.
Any peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine that includes an amnesty for war crimes could encourage other authoritarian leaders to attack their neighbours, Ukraine's only Nobel peace prize winner has warned. Oleksandra Matviichuk said the leaked 28-point US-Russia plan did not account for the human dimension and she supported President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's efforts to rewrite it in dialogue with White House. We need a peace, but not a pause that provides Russia a chance to retreat and regroup, the Kyiv-based human rights lawyer said.
The Trump administration shocked the world last week when it delivered a 28-point "peace plan" to Ukraine, which included demands that Kyiv cede territory to Russia that Moscow does not currently control and would ban Ukraine from joining NATO, among other controversial provisions that some US lawmakers described as amounting to a Russian "wish list." A flurry of diplomatic activity followed, leading to high-level meetings in Geneva and Abu Dhabi.
I hope the visit of President Zelensky will take place as soon as possible, because ... it will be help President Trump to continue his historical mission to end this war. Because [Trump] can say: 'Look, this is confirmed and agreed, our position with the Ukrainians. We support it, and we continue now to speak with the Russians.'
Finnish president Alexander Stubb has been speaking at a press conference before the country's ambassadors' conference in Helsinki. In comments reported by the Finnish public broadcaster, Yle, he said that he hoped Trump's patience with Putin would run out soon. He insisted that Finland and other European countries will do everything we can do achieve lasting peace. He also hinted that the only way to force Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine would be by hitting his allies,
