Ukrainian and Russian leaders must meet face-to-face to resolve the toughest issues remaining in peace talks, Kiev’s foreign minister has said, adding that only US President Donald Trump has the power to broker a deal.
Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha said in an interview that Ukraine wants to accelerate efforts to end the four-year-old war and take advantage of the momentum gained in US-brokered talks before other factors come into play, such as the campaign for the US congressional midterm elections in November.
“Only Trump can stop war”
“Only Trump can stop the war,” Sibiha told Reuters from his office in Kiev, which is near the Dnieper River.
Sibiha said only “a few” issues remained of the 20-point peace plan that formed the basis of recent trilateral talks. “These are the most sensitive and most difficult issues which have to be discussed at the level of leaders.”
The two sides appear far apart on important issues like land. Russia has maintained its demand that Ukraine hand over the remaining 20% of the region east of Donetsk, which it has failed to capture despite years of fierce, exhausting fighting – which Kiev has consistently refused. Ukraine also wants control over the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest – which is in Russian-held territory.
There was no sign of a major breakthrough at the second round of trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi this week, although 314 prisoners of war were exchanged on Thursday – the first such swap since October. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on Saturday that the US had proposed a new round of talks in Miami in a week, which Kiev had agreed to.