logo
Zelenskyy: Leaders of 13 countries expected in Kyiv on 24 February

Zelenskyy: Leaders of 13 countries expected in Kyiv on 24 February

Yahoo23-02-2025
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that leaders from 13 countries are expected to arrive in Kyiv on Monday, 24 February.
Source: Zelenskyy at a press conference, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Zelenskyy said that a summit will take place in Kyiv on Monday which will be attended by these leaders.
Quote from Zelenskyy: "We will have 13 leaders present in person and 24 leaders will join online. The leadership of the European Union will be here in Kyiv, as well as the European Parliament leadership, and many delegations... Our Ukraine – Nordic-Baltic platform – leaders from Northern Europe – will also be here."
Details: Zelenskyy said the discussions will focus on Ukraine's strategy and security guarantee formats.
Background:
It was also announced that besides the EU leaders, the European Commissioners will be in Kyiv next week.
Leaders of several European Union countries are reported to be preparing to visit Ukraine on 24 February to mark the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, or will participate in an EU meeting virtually.
Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

What to expect from Friday's Trump-Putin summit on US soil: Will a peace deal actually be reached?
What to expect from Friday's Trump-Putin summit on US soil: Will a peace deal actually be reached?

New York Post

time14 minutes ago

  • New York Post

What to expect from Friday's Trump-Putin summit on US soil: Will a peace deal actually be reached?

WASHINGTON — President Trump's Friday meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin may be the most-watched Washington-Moscow summit in decades — but don't expect any major decisions to be made as the US president seeks a 'more firm understanding' of how to end Moscow's war on Ukraine, sources and experts tell The Post. Trump, 79, plans to treat the meeting as a 'listening exercise' rather than a high-stakes negotiation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. While Putin, 72, has set audacious conditions for agreeing to a cease-fire with Ukraine, the US has made no concrete decision to date on whether to support them, sources familiar with the matter tell The Post. What Russia wants Among the demands reportedly pushed by Putin — almost entirely unchanged from the start of the war nearly three-and-a-half years ago — is the formal recognition by the US and Ukraine of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as Russian territory, despite Moscow being unable to secure them in 11 years of trying. Advertisement 4 Russia's President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump attend a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan June 28, 2019. REUTERS This recognition would include the roughly 30% of Donetsk and Luhansk that Russia does not control. The Kremlin also seeks a freezing of the current front lines. Advertisement The desires were communicated to Trump by Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin at the Kremlin last week, according to European officials. However, Russia has not made these demands public, which is one reason why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would like a sitdown with Putin — to get the terms direct from the horse's mouth. Russia has also pushed for Ukraine to formally agree to never join NATO, a halt to shipments of Western weapons to Ukraine and a prohibition on NATO-aligned soldiers from setting foot on Ukrainian territory. 4 Putin and Trump last saw each other in 2019. AFP via Getty Images Advertisement Despite the White House insisting the war will be the primary topic, Russian officials have indicated they see the Alaska summit as a prime opportunity to discuss potential deals with the US — including opening up Alaskan airspace to Russian flights. 'We hope that the upcoming summit will give impetus to the normalization of bilateral relations,' Russia's deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told state media site Izvestia, noting that restoration of air traffic could be a possible topic. The Arctic and economic cooperation are also topics that interest Russia, Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov said, noting that the Kremlin hopes the meeting will lead to Trump going to Russia in the future. However, Russia observers have expressed concerns over the Alaska location — particularly as Moscow's hardliners have long 'lamented the loss of Russia's larger territorial extent throughout history,' George Barros of the Institute for the Study of War said Tuesday. Advertisement 'Russian nationalists have manufactured a pseudo-historical argument for why America's purchase of Alaska [in 1867] was illegitimate, and that Alaska is therefore actually legally Russian,' he said. 'This is all nonsense, of course.' 'The Russian nationalist doesn't respect the United States, but rather invents territorial disputes with its neighbors and seethes at Russa's diminished geography.' What Ukraine wants Zelensky, 47, has called Moscow's demands untenable for establishing a cease-fire, but has signaled openness to some concessions — so long as they are made as part of a final peace deal. Ending the war after more than three grueling years would be a positive for Zelensky, as his country has been ravaged by missile strikes, mines and Russian infantry. But the Ukrainian leader has been clear he will not accept peace at any price. 4 In this photo taken from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Thursday, July 31, 2025, a Russian Giatsint-S self-propelled gun fires towards Ukrainian positions on an undisclosed location in Ukraine. AP Zelensky has been adamant that Ukraine receive security guarantees, like NATO membership or nuclear weapons, to ensure Russia doesn't invade again in the future. 'It is impossible to talk about Ukraine without Ukraine, and no one will recognize that. That's why this conversation may be important for their bilateral track, but they cannot decide anything on Ukraine without us,' Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv Tuesday. 'I hope the US president understands that and takes into account.' What Trump wants Advertisement Friday will give the president a chance to observe Putin with his own eyes to better assess whether the Russian dictator is 'tapping [him] along' with empty promises of peace, as Trump himself has occasionally suggested might be the case. 'Only one party that's involved in this war is going to be present, and so this is for the president to go in and to get, again, a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end,' Leavitt said. 4 Various aircrafts are seen at Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska, United States on July 2, 2024. Anadolu via Getty Images Secretary of State Marco Rubio similarly described the summit as a 'feel-out meeting, to be honest.' Advertisement 'The president talked to Putin on the phone three or four times, OK? And nothing has come of it — or at least we haven't gotten to where we want to be,' he said. 'And so the president feels like, 'Look, I've got to look at this guy across the table. I need to see him face-to-face. I need to hear him one-on-one. I need to make an assessment by looking at him.'' Trump made ending the war in Ukraine one of his major 2024 campaign promises, and securing a peace deal would provide a major bulwark for his foreign policy legacy. To that end, Trump is expected to raise the issue of land swaps between Russia and Ukraine to gauge Putin's reaction. The US president will also speak to European leaders ahead of Friday's meeting in addition to after the sitdown, sources familiar with the preparations say. 'The next meeting will be with Zelensky and Putin, or Zelensky and Putin and me. I'll be there if they need, but I want a meeting set up between the two leaders,' Trump said Monday. 'There'll be some land swapping.'

Zelenskyy on Trump-Putin summit: "Talks about us, without us, will not work" for Ukraine
Zelenskyy on Trump-Putin summit: "Talks about us, without us, will not work" for Ukraine

CBS News

time15 minutes ago

  • CBS News

Zelenskyy on Trump-Putin summit: "Talks about us, without us, will not work" for Ukraine

Russia has signaled to the U.S. that it may be willing to end the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters Tuesday. "We had a call with President Trump and with some European leaders. During the call, there was a signal from Mr. Witkoff, who was also on the call, that Russia is ready to end the war — ready for a first step, at least, toward a ceasefire," Zelenskyy said, referencing U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. "And that this is the first such signal from them." However, Zelenskyy also warned that "talks about us, without us, will not work," ahead of President Trump's one-on-one summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska scheduled for Friday. The call involving Zelenskyy, Mr. Trump and Witkoff took place last week, a spokesperson for Zelenskyy's office told CBS News Tuesday. While Zelenskyy said "everyone on the call" was encouraged by what was viewed as a "shift" in Russia's position, the Ukrainian leader said Ukraine will not, under any circumstances, withdraw its forces from the Russian-occupied Donbas region in the east of Ukraine. "Our territories are illegally occupied. For the Russians, Donbas is a springboard for a future new offensive. If we leave Donbas of our own accord or under pressure, we will invite a third war," Zelenskyy said. The summit between Mr. Trump and Putin is the first in-person meeting between Putin and a sitting U.S. president since Russia invaded Ukraine. It was described as "a listening exercise for the president," by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt Tuesday. "Only one party that's involved in this war is going to be present, and so this is for the president to go and to get, again, a more firm and better understanding of how we can hopefully bring this war to an end," Leavitt said. It is widely expected that Putin will demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from all parts of Ukraine's Donbas region —parts of which Russian forces held since the country's 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the area under Russian occupation has increased, though Ukrainian forces do currently hold territory in parts of Donetsk, a province located within the Donbas. Ahead of Mr. Trump's meeting with Putin, a spokesperson for Zelenskyy's office has confirmed to CBS News that he will attend a virtual meeting Wednesday with Mr. Trump and European leaders to discuss the war. Speaking to reporters in the White House briefing room Monday, Mr. Trump expressed optimism that his meeting with Putin will be "constructive," and said that he is planning to establish an in-person meeting involving Putin and Zelenskyy. "The next meeting will be with Zelenskyy and Putin or Zelenskyy and Putin and me," Mr. Trump said. Two sources familiar with those negotiations told CBS News Tuesday that the U.S. is working on a site for a Trump-Putin-Zelenskyy meeting as soon as the end of next week. But Zelenskyy was adamant in his remarks Tuesday that no such meeting should take place without the involvement of European leaders. "The presence of Europe in one form or another is very important, because ultimately, so far, no one but Europe has provided us with security guarantees," he said. As for Mr. Trump's meeting with Putin in Alaska, Zelenskyy said that the meeting would only benefit one person— the Russian leader. "I believe that Putin will benefit from this, because what he is seeking, frankly, is photographs. He needs a photo from a meeting with President Trump," Zelenskyy said. "Ukrainian issues should be discussed by at least three parties."Jennifer Jacobs contributed to this report.

Europe's Free-Trade Fumble
Europe's Free-Trade Fumble

Wall Street Journal

timean hour ago

  • Wall Street Journal

Europe's Free-Trade Fumble

Given how aghast our European friends are at President Trump's tariffs, you'd think they'd be flexing their diplomatic muscles to expand free trade wherever else in the world they can. You've never met a French President. While the European Union was frantically negotiating a trade deal with Mr. Trump last month, the bloc more or less killed a free-trade agreement with a clutch of South American countries. The EU-Mercosur agreement, in the works for years, would expand trade between the bloc and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Mercosur countries exported to the EU goods worth €56 billion in 2024, while EU exports to Mercosur totalled €55.2 billion, according to the European Commission.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store