Zelensky’s talks with other leaders indicate diplomatic turmoil over Ukraine

KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held talks with U.S. President Joe Biden and the leaders of Turkey and France on Sunday, in an increase in diplomacy over the war started by Russia, which continues for the tenth month.

“We are constantly working with partners,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address, adding that he expects some “important results” next week from the series of international events that will address the situation in Ukraine.

While Zelensky has held numerous conversations with Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since the invasion of Russian forces in late February, the accumulation of discussions in just one day is not an ordinary occurrence.

Zelensky said he thanked Biden for the “unprecedented defense and financial” assistance the United States has provided to Ukraine and spoke with the US president about effective anti-aircraft defense systems to protect the population.

Earlier, Zelensky said he had a “very meaningful” conversation with Macron on “defence, energy, economics and diplomacy” that lasted more than an hour and “very specific” talks with Erdogan on guaranteeing Ukraine’s grain exports.

Turkey, which mediated peace talks in the early months of the war, worked alongside the United Nations in a grain deal, and opened Ukrainian ports to exports in July after a six-month de facto Russian blockade.

Erdogan’s office said the Turkish leader made a phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, calling for a quick end to the conflict.

Putin said last week that Moscow’s near complete loss of confidence in the West would make a final settlement over Ukraine more difficult and warned of a protracted war.

Macron has championed diplomacy in the conflict, but his conflicting messages that it is up to Kiev to decide when to negotiate with Moscow, as well as that security guarantees are essential for Russia, have alarmed some Western allies, Kiev and the Baltic states.

There are no peace talks and no end in sight to Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two, which Moscow has called a “special military operation” and Ukraine and its allies an act of unprovoked aggression.

Moscow shows no signs of being willing to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and pre-war borders, saying that the four regions it claims it annexed from Ukraine in September are part of Russia “forever”. The government in Kiev ruled out ceding any land to Russia in return for peace.

On the ground in Ukraine, the entire Eastern Front line was continuously bombarded as heavy fighting broke out. Moscow is also targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with waves of missile and drone strikes, sometimes cutting electricity to millions of civilians in the winter, when average temperatures can be several degrees below zero.

(Reporting by Nick Starkov in Kiev). Additional reporting by Ronald Popeskey in Winnipeg, Canada; Written by Lydia Kelly. Editing by Grant McCall

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.