Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Friday for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to try to ease tensions with Russia.
This came following a meeting with Macron in Paris and Merkel via video link, as Ukraine and Russia have blamed one another for the spike in violence in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
“We’re hoping that the visit of President Zelenskyy will enable giving a new momentum” to negotiations with both Russia and Ukraine and ultimately to a political solution to the conflict, according to a French official at the French.
“We seek to understand positions and tensions and see how we can figure out the narrow paths between the (different) views,” the official said.
Zelenskyy wants NATO to intervene and is also pressing for his country to join both the European Union and the NATO alliance.
Moreover, Zelenskyy praised the “warm and strong relations” between Ukraine, France and Germany, and called for action.
“They always support our integrity, our sovereignty....But I said very directly and very honestly that we need now to move very quickly,” he said during a news conference.
“I think it’s not only our problem, that it’s about the security of Europe,” the Ukrainian leader affirmed.
US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had a phone call late on Wednesday, as they agreed to call on Russia to draw back its troops from the Ukrainian border.
“The leaders expressed concern about the build-up of Russian troops on Ukraine’s border and in occupied Crimea, and reaffirmed their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the White House’s readout of the call noted.
Biden and Merkel agreed on urging Russia to reduce the latest troop reinforcements near the border to Ukraine, “in order to achieve a deescalation of the situation,” Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert revealed.
Follow the latest news on Google News
