KYIV, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Joe Biden held talks with the leaders of Turkey and France on Sunday, stepping up diplomatic efforts around the conflict started by Russia is dragged to the 10th month.
“We are still working with partners,” Zelenskiy said in a video message overnight, adding that he expects some “important results” next week from the upcoming international conferences. to the conditions of Ukraine.
Although Zelenskiy has spoken frequently with Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan since the Russian military attack in late February, the collection of conversations during the day one is not a regular event.
Zelenskiy said he thanked Biden for the “unprecedented and financial” assistance that the United States has provided for Ukraine and talked to the American president about an effective air-defense system to protect the population. .
Earlier, Zelenskiy said he had a “very meaningful” conversation with Macron on “defense, energy, economy, diplomacy” for more than an hour and “very special” talks with Erdogan on stabilizing Ukraine’s grain exports.
Turkey, which acted as a mediator in the peace talks in the early months of the war, also cooperated with the United Nations in the grain deal, opening Ukrainian ports for exports in the month of July after six months of Russian embargo.
According to Erdogan’s office, the Turkish leader had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, in which he called for an immediate end to the conflict.
Putin said last week that Moscow’s loss of trust in the West would make it more difficult to deal with Ukraine and warned of a protracted conflict.
Macron has won a degree in the campaign but his mixed messages have Kyiv decide when to negotiate with Moscow, but also require security guarantees for Russia, which has shocked some of the friends of the West, Kyiv and the Baltic states.
There is no talk of peace, and no end to Europe’s deadliest war since World War II, which Moscow calls a “special military operation” and Ukraine and its allies call an act of brutal aggression.
Moscow shows no signs of being ready to respect Ukraine’s independence and pre-conflict territories, saying the four regions it claims were annexed from Ukraine in September a part of Russia “forever.” The Kyiv government has decided to cede land to Russia in exchange for peace.
On the ground in Ukraine, the entire front line of the east has kept the bullet to the big fight. Moscow is also targeting Ukraine’s power infrastructure with waves of missiles and drone strikes, sometimes cutting off electricity for millions of people in the winter, when many degrees below zero. Celsius.
Nick Starkov comments in Kyiv; Additional comments by Ronald Popeski in Winnipeg, Canada; Written by Lidia Kelly; edited by Grant McCool
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