Zelensky, speaking after a telephone conversation with Trump, said that tripartite negotiations with Russia and the United States of America will be held at the beginning of next month. American negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner also participated in the telephone conversation.
“We expect that this meeting will create an opportunity to raise the negotiations to the level of the leaders of the states. President Trump supports this sequence of steps,” Zelenskiy wrote on the X network. “It is the only way to resolve all complex and sensitive issues and finally end the war.”
The telephone conversation took place on the eve of another meeting, exclusively between Ukrainian and American negotiators, where post-war reconstruction will be discussed.
Trilateral meeting
Speaking earlier at a news conference in Kyiv alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Zelenskiy said Thursday’s meeting would include discussion of a “prosperity package”.
Zelensky emphasized that the US wants to find a way to end the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II as quickly as possible, but that the positions of Moscow and Kiev are still far apart.
“In my opinion, the difficulties are not at the military level at the moment. The problem is in the political will to end this war and in the issue of territory,” said Zelenski.
He also said that Russian claims made on Tuesday, according to which Kiev is trying to acquire nuclear weapons, were in fact an attempt to exert political pressure on Ukraine during the negotiations. He reiterated that Ukraine does not have nuclear weapons and called on the US to react to what he called dangerous Russian rhetoric.
New meeting
Rustem Umerov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and head of Ukraine’s negotiating team, will meet in Geneva on Thursday with special envoy Witkoff and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Russian news agency TASS, citing a diplomatic source, said President Vladimir Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, would also arrive in Geneva on Thursday, but gave no further details.
Continuing to rebuild Ukraine after the devastation caused by Russian airstrikes and front-line fighting has become a key element of broader talks to end the war, which entered its fifth year this week.
Kiev hopes to attract about $800 billion in public and private funds to rebuild the country over the next ten years.
According to the latest estimate of the World Bank published on Monday, the reconstruction of the Ukrainian economy will cost 588 billion dollars. The estimate is based on data from February 24, 2022 to December 31, 2025.
(Vijesti.ba)
