Kiev: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday (November 16) that he wants to end the war with Russia next year by “diplomatic means”.
He spoke a day after saying he expected the conflict to end sooner than it otherwise would have, once the newly elected President of the United States, Donald Trump, takes office next year.
“For our part, we must do everything we can to ensure that this war ends next year. We must end this by diplomatic means,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Ukrainian radio. “And this, I think, is very important.”
There have been no meaningful talks between Russia and Ukraine, but a Trump presidency raises questions about the future of the conflict, with the Republican repeatedly saying he will end the war quickly.
“We have to understand what the Russians want,” Zelensky said.
Referring to Ukraine, he said: “You are at war with a state that does not value its people, that has a lot of equipment and that does not care how many people die.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will only accept talks with Ukraine if Kiev surrenders Ukrainian territory that Moscow occupies.
The Kremlin said he repeated that demand a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday.
Zelenskyy has rejected Putin’s conditions.
Moscow has made steady progress in eastern Ukraine since this summer, moving closer to key hubs such as Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.
Zelensky said on Saturday that Russian forces suffered heavy losses and that the advance had “slowed” in some areas.
Russia remains the only obstacle to a just peace in Ukraine, the G7 added on Saturday in a statement marking the thousand days of the Russian invasion.
“Russia remains the only obstacle to a just and lasting peace,” the Group of Seven industrialized countries, of which Italy holds the rotating presidency, said in a statement in Italian, adding: “We will remain united at the side of Ukraine.”