During a joint media appearance with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized the need to stop the killings and work on a final peace agreement.
“Putin has many demands, but we don’t know all of them. If there are indeed as many as we’ve heard, it will take time to work through them. Doing this under the pressure of weapons is impossible. That is why it is necessary to stop the fire and quickly work on a final agreement. We will discuss this in Washington. Putin does not want to stop the killings. But he must do it,” Zelensky said.
The President stressed the need for real negotiations to take place along the frontline. “The line of contact is the best line for negotiations. Europeans support this, and we are grateful to everyone,” he added. Zelensky noted that Russia had not succeeded in Donetsk region and had been unable to capture it for 12 years, while Ukraine’s Constitution makes it impossible to cede territory or trade land.
Territorial issues, he said, should be discussed only at a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States. “So far, Russia has given no signals that such a meeting will take place. And if Russia refuses, then new sanctions must follow,” the President stated.
Zelensky underlined the importance of cooperation with the US and Europe on providing Ukraine with security guarantees. “We are very grateful to the United States and the President for such a signal, and therefore for everyone in Europe as well. This is a significant shift. But so far, there are no details of how this will work – what America’s role will be, what Europe’s role will be, what the EU can do. And this is our main task. We need security that works in practice, like NATO’s Article 5,” he explained.
The President also expressed his position on Ukraine’s EU accession. “We consider EU membership part of security guarantees. And we heard from President Trump that both America and Putin see it the same way. So, we talked about negotiations on EU accession. There can be no division between Ukraine and Moldova – in my opinion, that would be an extremely bad step. If such a division occurs, it would automatically mean that Europe is divided on Ukraine, that Europe does not have a united and strong position on guarantees,” Zelensky emphasized.
He said that an agreement was reached to work more actively on programs such as SAFE, and he counts on support in the field of drones, stressing that this is a priority.
Zelensky thanked partners for the 18th sanctions package against Russia and noted that a 19th package is already being prepared to demonstrate the seriousness of intentions. “We understand Russia’s strategic course – it is anti-European, and therefore we must continue to limit Russia’s potential,” he stressed.
Separately, the President highlighted the importance of supporting Ukrainian children in schools. “We have a school meals program, and this is an important program that ensures that children from every family, in the conditions of war, at least have safety and receive normal hot meals. The new school year will start soon. And I asked Ursula to help us improve this program. These are our children, this is our future – everything is for them,” Zelensky underlined.