President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on his recent meeting in Paris with President-elect Donald Trump and France’s President Emmanuel Macron.
Speaking with journalists Monday, he admitted that they discussed a ceasefire, adding that “we [Ukraine] more than anyone in the world want to end the war.”
“Between us, we’ve discussed the frozen conflict. I said that we, more than anyone in the world, want to end the war. Certainly, a diplomatic resolution to the war would save more lives. We want that. But I emphasized to both President Macron and President Trump: you will see that Putin does not want to end this war, so he needs to be forced,” Zelenskyy said.
He further underscored that the ceasefire can happen only if Ukraine has the tools to counter Russia’s strength.
“A strong Ukraine is strong on the battlefield foremost. This means a strong army, weapons packages, and so on. This includes long-range systems, certainly ATACMS, TAURUS, Storm Shadow, and SCALP. All of this is critically important to us,” Zelenskyy stated, stressing that they’d be used to strike military targets exclusively.
Zelenskyy, Trump, and Macron met in Paris on 7 December as part of the trilateral talks before Trump took office on 20 January 2025.
