(Budapest) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday rejected the idea of discussing a ceasefire with Russia or making the slightest “concession”, after Moscow ordered the West to negotiate under penalty of ” destruction of the Ukrainian population.
Posted at 6:38 a.m.
Updated at 9:37 a.m.
Vladimir Putin said he was “ready to resume contact” with Donald Trump after the Republican's victory in the American presidential election, while the billionaire assured during the campaign that he could end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours”.
“We can’t just say “[un cessez-le-feu maintenant] and then we will see”. This is not sustainable. And the worst thing is that it is irresponsible,” Mr. Zelensky said during a press conference on the sidelines of a summit of the European Political Community in Budapest, referring to “very dangerous rhetoric.”
The Ukrainian president assured earlier Thursday that making “concessions to Putin” was “unacceptable for Ukraine and suicidal for all of Europe”, partly repeating a speech made a little earlier.
Calls for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are becoming more insistent after more than two and a half years of a devastating war, including among some of Kyiv's allies.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the European leader best disposed to Mr. Putin, repeated his call on Thursday for a truce on the battlefield, to “give the warring parties the space and time to communicate and begin to negotiate peace.
North Korean “losses”
Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Hungary for this meeting with European leaders at a difficult time for Ukraine, which has been retreating on the front for months in the face of a better armed and more numerous adversary.
He assured for the first time that the North Korean soldiers accused by Kyiv and the West of being deployed in Russia to support Moscow's forces there “took part in hostilities” and suffered “losses”.
According to him, 11,000 North Korean soldiers are deployed in the Russian region of Kursk, a small part of which Ukrainian forces have occupied since a surprise offensive launched in early August.
PRESS SERVICE PHOTO OF THE UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT, PROVIDED BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
North Korea “is now waging war in Europe,” he lamented, adding: “North Korean soldiers are trying to kill our people on European soil.”
The election of Donald Trump to the American presidency has cast a chill in Kyiv, which fears a disengagement from its main supplier of arms and financing in the months to come.
“I spoke to President Trump […]it was a productive conversation but, of course, we cannot say what specific actions he will take,” noted the Ukrainian head of state.
He thus called on Americans and Europeans to be “strong” and to “value” their relations. “What is clear to me is that [Trump] really wants to end [à la guerre] “, he said.
“Destruction of the population”
On the ground, a series of Russian strikes left four dead and 33 injured in the city of Zaporizhia, in southern Ukraine. Glide bombs hit a hospital and residential buildings, according to local authorities.
The strikes came hours after Russian Security Council chief Sergei Shoigu pressed Kyiv's Western allies to begin negotiations with Moscow if they want to end attacks on Ukrainians.
FREELANCER PHOTO, REUTERS
Rescuers work at the site of a building hit by a Russian airstrike, part of Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, November 7, 2024.
“The situation in the theater of hostilities is not in favor of the Kyiv regime, the West has a choice: continue its financing [de l’Ukraine] and the destruction of the Ukrainian population or admit the existing realities and start negotiating,” he said during a meeting.
With the return to the White House of Donald Trump, the ball is in the American court, the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, said on Thursday.
“We will see if there are any proposals” from the new American administration, he declared.
Series of attacks
PHOTO UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICES, PROVIDED BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
A firefighter extinguishes a fire resulting from a Russian drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine.
With the apparent desire to break the morale of the population, Russia bombs Ukraine almost daily.
On Thursday, a strike on the village of Mykolaivka caused the death of two people and injured five people, according to the governor of the eastern Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin.
The capital Kyiv was targeted by drone raids for almost the entire first week of November, the military administration said.
During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, debris from such devices fell on six neighborhoods of Kyiv, causing two minor injuries, according to this source.
Russia is demanding in particular that Ukraine cede five regions of the country and that it renounce its ambition to join NATO. Unacceptable conditions for Mr. Zelensky, who insists on the pure and simple withdrawal of Russian troops from all of the occupied territories.
