 "Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. AP File")
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy slammed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, accusing him delaying efforts to broker a ceasefire deal. In a post on social media platform X, Zelenskyy said that after discussion in Jeddah and a ceasefire proposal from the United States, Russia had “stolen another week”. He emphasised that Putin is prolonging war which only Russia wants.
“After the talks in Jeddah and the American proposal for a ceasefire on the frontline, Russia stole almost another week – a week of war that only Russia wants,” the Ukrainian leader said in a video message on Monday.
“We will do everything to further intensify diplomacy. We will do everything to make diplomacy effective. But every day now is about defending our independence, our state, and our people. We must remember – it is the support of our army, all our defence and security forces, and our state that determines everything,” he added.
The remarks from Zelenskyy came shortly after he announced a restructuring of the country’s armed forces. Alongside commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and defence minister Rustem Umerov, Zelenskyy appointed Andrii Hnatov as the new chief of the general staff.
Zelenskyy concluded his message by expressing gratitude to everyone who acknowledged Ukraine’s “defence and resilience” on the battleground. “We must remember – as long as the occupier is on our land, and as long as air raid sirens sound, we must defend Ukraine,” he added.
Russia seeks ‘ironclad’ guarantees
Meanwhile, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Alexander Grushko, said that the country is seeking “ironclad” guarantees in any peace deal with Ukraine. Grushko said that Russia wants assurance from NATO that it will exclude Kyiv from membership and that the country would remain neutral.
Trump and his team have been trying to win Putin’s support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal that Ukraine has already accepted last week. Trump will discuss the ceasefire deal with Putin on Tuesday. The meeting will come days after US envoy Steve Witkoff visited Russia to please the country’s leader. After returning, Witkoff told CNN that they had a “positive meeting” with Putin.
In an interview with Russian media outlet Izvestia, Grushko did not refer to the ceasefire proposal. However, he maintained that any long-lasting peace treaty on Ukraine must meet Moscow’s demands. “We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement,” Izvestia cited Grushko as saying.
“Part of these guarantees should be the neutral status of Ukraine, the refusal of Nato countries to accept it into the alliance," he added. Moscow has been categorically against the deployment of Nato observers to Ukraine. However, both the UK and France said that they are willing to send peacekeeping forces to monitor the ceasefire in Ukraine.
“It does not matter under what label Nato contingents were to be deployed on Ukrainian territory, be it the European Union, NATO, or in a national capacity,” Grushko averred.