President Zelenskyy said Ukraine is prepared to enter peace talks to end the war but ruled out holding them in Russia or Belarus, signaling that any diplomatic effort must take place on neutral ground and without preconditions.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said Kyiv will not comply with Moscow’s insistence that Ukrainian forces withdraw from more territory as a prerequisite for negotiations.
“We will not take any steps back and leave one part of our state or another,” he said, adding that diplomacy must begin from “the position where we currently stand.”
He added that the “important outcome” was “the fact that the American side finally made this a public signal: President Trump came out with such a message.”
In recent weeks, Zelenskyy has managed to repair his relationship with President Trump, who has grown increasingly frustrated with Vladimir Putin’s reluctance to end the war as swiftly as the White House would prefer.
