U.S. President Zelensky’s Dialogue on the Security of the Second World War: Addressing the First Day of the War in Turkey
He has signaled his interest in ending the war since he was elected. He made his first Sunday address a call for peace in Ukraine and for prisoners of war to be freed. He added that children should be returned to their families. Since the war began, many Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia against their families’ wishes.
The phone diplomacy followed direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul on Friday in which they agreed to swap war prisoners but failed to agree on an immediate ceasefire. Russia and Ukraine held their first direct talks in more than a year during the negotiations in Turkey.
Mr. Zelensky had visited the Holy See in the past. The private meeting between Mr. Zelensky and President Trump was held at the funeral of Pope Francis on April 26, and there is a striking picture of the two men facing each other. It was the first time they had met since the February sit-down in the Oval Office in February, in which Mr. Trump castigated the Ukrainian leader.
Merz said that he had also agreed with the leaders of France and Britain “that we will speak again with the American president in preparation for this conversation.”
“My strong impression is that both Europeans and Americans are determined to work together, but now also in a focused manner, to ensure that this terrible war ends soon,” Mr. Merz said.
On Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said that he had met with Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada and President Karin Keller-Sutter of Switzerland separately in Rome to discuss how to increase pressure on Russia to end the war.
The intensified diplomacy came as Russia launched its largest drone barrage against Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, after the first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in years failed to yield a ceasefire.
Putin rejected Zelenskyy’s proposal to meet in Turkey because he himself proposed direct negotiations as an alternative to a 30-day ceasefire called for by Ukraine and its Western allies.
U.S. drone attacks in Ukraine: warnings for the end of the war, and warnings from the Russian embassy in Kiev during the Ukrainian air invasion
The Ukrainian air force said Sunday that Russia had bombarded it with a total of 273 drones and decoys. There were 88 intercepts and 128 lost, which likely had been electronically jammed. The attacks targeted the country’s Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.
The largest drone attack since the start of the full-scale invasion was by the Ukrainian Air Force, said the head of the communications department.
Kyiv regional Gov. Mykola Kalashnyk said a a 28-year-old woman was killed in a drone attack on the region and three other people, including a 4-year-old child, were wounded.
The President of the United States is in Moscow talking to leaders of Russia, Ukraine and other countries about an end to the war in Ukraine.
“I think that President Putin is not quite equipped to extricate himself from the war, so I am going to take my luggage with me to Italy”, he told reporters.
The White House press secretary stated on Monday that Trump has grown very frustrated with both sides of the conflict, but was keeping his options open.
In a weekend interview with Russian state television, Putin insisted that Moscow’s force and means are still capable of meeting its military objectives. He said that would include security for residents in territories of Ukraine that Russia claims to have annexed but does not fully control.
Should Trump fail to convince Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire, European leaders have urged Trump to join them in imposing an endgame round of additional sanctions and tariffs on Russian energy and banking.
“Russia can keep its military operations going up until this point.” Ivan Timofeev, the head of the Russian International Affairs Council said that Sanctions are hurting but they aren’t crucial for Russia’s economy.