Today in Brussels, Ukraine acting President Volodymyr Zelensky met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, after which they gave a press conference.
They also both attended the European Coalition of the Willing virtual meeting. They both are now on their way to Washington, D.C. to meet at the White House on August 18 with President Trump.
Zelenskyy’s points at the press conference clashed with what Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff has identified as matters to be worked out. On the matter of Russia seeing a ceasefire after talks are well and truly underway, and not before, Zelenskyy disagreed.
And firstly, Zelenskyy insists, talks on land have to proceed from the “contact” or “front line” of territory, and not on administrative boundaries, as the Russians and Americans say.
Zelenskyy told the press conference: “We need real negotiations. That means they can only begin where the front line is now. The contact line is the best line for talks. The Europeans support this, and we’re grateful to them all.… Putin has many demands and we do not know all of them.
If there really are as many as we have heard, then it will take a lot of time to go through all of them, and that cannot be done under the pressure of weapons. Therefore, a ceasefire is necessary in order to work quickly on the final agreement. We will discuss this in Washington.”
