Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was set to satisfy with key European allies after US President Donald Trump accused him of not studying the most recent peace proposal.
The December 8 talks in London comply with three days of negotiations between Ukrainian and US officers close to Miami as negotiators attempt to discover settlement following the discharge of a US draft peace proposal final month.
The 28-point plan was seen as closely favorable to Russia, and Kyiv has pushed again on a number of the extra strident, hard-line calls for that President Vladimir Putin has pushed since earlier than he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“We are beginning a brand new diplomatic week proper now — there will likely be consultations with European leaders. First and foremost, safety points, help for our resilience, and help packages for our protection,” Zelenskyy mentioned in his nightly tackle, recorded on a practice on December 7.
Zelenskyy’s London conferences embrace Kyiv’s largest backers in Europe: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Meanwhile, in Washington on December 7, US President Donald Trump criticized his Ukrainian counterpart, saying he was “a bit of bit dissatisfied.”
“We’ve been chatting with President Putin and we have been chatting with Ukrainian leaders, together with Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy, and I’ve to say that I’m a bit of bit dissatisfied that President Zelenskyy hasn’t but learn the proposal, that was as of some hours in the past,” Trump instructed reporters.
Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, mentioned he would report back to Zelenskyy on the most recent developments on December 8.
One of Kyiv’s foremost targets within the Miami talks was to acquire “all drafts of present proposals so as to talk about them intimately with the President of Ukraine,” Umerov wrote on X. “Today, we are going to present the President of Ukraine with full info on all elements of the dialogue with the American facet and all paperwork.”
Details of the proposal following changes to the 28-point plan haven’t been launched publicly, and Trump mentioned nothing about its content material. US and Ukrainian officers have indicated in current days that key sticking factors included management over territory and safety ensures for Ukraine.
Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko mentioned that whereas “we do not know do not know precisely what the United States is proposing,” a clause from the 28-point plan obliging Ukraine to withdraw its forces from territory it nonetheless controls within the Donetsk area may very well be a serious barrier to any settlement.
“The majority of Ukrainians, regardless of all present difficulties, are unlikely to simply accept the concept Ukraine voluntarily leaves the Donbas with out receiving something in return, not even actual ensures of a cease-fire,” Fesenko, head of the Penta Center for Political Studies in Kyiv, instructed Current Time.
In uncompromising feedback final week, Putin mentioned Russia would seize management of the Donbas — the Donetsk and Luhansk areas — “by army or different means,” suggesting Moscow wouldn’t conform to a deal that leaves any a part of the area in Ukrainian palms.
He mentioned the identical of the a part of Ukraine as soon as identified in Russia as “Novorossia,” indicating Moscow may additionally demand full management over the Zaporizhzhya and Kherson areas. Ukraine nonetheless holds massive elements of the 2 southern areas, together with their capitals.
Following the negotiations in Miami, Zelenskyy mentioned he had spoken with US particular envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who’ve led the negotiations on behalf of the White House.
“The American envoys are conscious of Ukraine’s core positions, and the dialog was constructive although not straightforward,” Zelenskyy mentioned.
Meanwhile, Russia continued its air strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure as winter temperatures fall.
Russian forces attacked Okhtyrka within the Sumy area on the night time of December 8, in keeping with regional authorities.
Governor Oleh Hryhorov mentioned seven individuals have been injured in a strike on a nine-story residential constructing, all of whom have been taken to a hospital.
According to Ukrainian emergency officers, firefighters extinguished a blaze on the second to fifth flooring and evacuated 35 residents, rescuing seven individuals, together with one little one, from broken residences.
In Chernihiv, an condo constructing was broken on account of the autumn of a Russian drone. Three individuals have been injured, considered one of whom was hospitalized, emergency officers mentioned in a put up to Telegram.
Ahead of Zelenskyy’s deliberate visits to Brussels and Rome this week to debate the peace course of, the Ukrainian chief spoke by cellphone with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Meloni reaffirmed Rome’s solidarity with Kyiv and pledged to provide emergency support to help Ukraine’s vitality infrastructure and its inhabitants, in keeping with an announcement from her workplace.
The workplace added that Italy will ship further provides, together with mills, to help vitality infrastructure and the Ukrainian inhabitants, and that the objective stays an enduring and simply peace.
