Kyiv:
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that Ukraine would be ready to hold talks with Russia in any format once a ceasefire is in place and the fighting between Kyiv and Moscow’s forces has stopped.
The Ukrainian leader also told reporters at a briefing that a Ukrainian delegation meeting officials from Western countries in London on Wednesday would have a mandate to discuss a full or partial ceasefire.
“We are ready to record that after a ceasefire, we are ready to sit down in any format so that there are no dead ends,” Zelensky said at the briefing in the presidential office in Kyiv.
“It will not be possible to agree on everything quickly,” he warned, noting numerous highly complex issues such as territory, security guarantees and Ukraine’s membership in the NATO military alliance.
The talks in London, which are to set to bring together officials from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine, come amid a flurry of intense US-led diplomatic efforts to find a way to end Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Zelensky said he would be happy to meet US President Donald Trump later this week when they attend the funeral of Pope Francis.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
