Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, who has just won the US presidential election, have separately said they are ready to talk with each other.
Mr. Putin said he was “ready to resume contact” with Donald Trump. “I think we are going to talk to each other,” said the American billionaire, who assured during the campaign that he could end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours”.
“We can't just say '(a ceasefire now) and then we'll see.' It's not viable. And the worst part is that it's irresponsible,” 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 necessary to communicate and begin to negotiate peace.
North Korean “losses”
Mr. Zelensky 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, of which Ukrainian forces have occupied a small part since a surprise offensive launched in early August.
North Korea is now “waging war in Europe,” he lamented.
The election of Donald Trump to the American presidency has cast a chill over 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. “I think President Trump really wants to (achieve) a quick solution. But that doesn't mean it will happen,” he said.
Mr. Zelensky also indicated that he had met in Budapest with French President Emmanuel Macron, the two men having discussed military aid to Ukraine and the training of Ukrainian soldiers in France.
“Destruction of the population”
On the ground, a series of Russian strikes left four dead and 40 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.
“The situation in the theater of hostilities is not in favor of the kyiv regime, the West has a choice: continue its financing (of Ukraine) and the destruction of the Ukrainian population or admit the existing realities and begin to negotiate,” he said during a meeting.
With the return of Donald Trump to the White House, 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
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.
Russia is demanding in particular that Ukraine cede five regions of the country to it 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.
Mr. Putin once again assured Thursday that Moscow was ready to negotiate with kyiv on the basis of “current realities” on the ground.
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