Ukraine: Zelenskyy wants 'strong ties' to United States

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday expressed support for the moves by US President Donald Trump's administration to achieve a settlement in Ukraine amid Russia's ongoing invasion. 

"China has noted that calls for peace talks have been rising recently, and a window for peace is opening," Wang said during the G20 meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa.

"China supports all efforts conducive to peace (in Ukraine), including the recent consensus reached between the United States and Russia," he added. 

US and Russian representatives recently met in Saudi Arabia, where they exchanged views on Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been critical of the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, saying they would "bring no result." European countries have criticized the talks for attempting to find a solution to the war without them.

China maintains a neutral stance in regards to the war in Ukraine. 

Although both the Chinese and Russian foreign ministers are present at the G20 gathering in South Africa, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has boycotted the event. Rubio's refusal to go to the meeting comes as Trump feuds with the South African government over a land restitution law.     

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron ended their talks on Thursday.

Zelenskyy said the two leaders came up with a plan for future steps. 

"Clear coordination of our positions, joint plans, and next steps. We thoroughly discussed our views on security guarantees—a just and lasting peace is our shared goal, and we are working toward it together," he posted on X.

He emphasized the importance of Ukraine, Europe and the US working together to bring lasting peace.

Billionaire Elon Musk said Thursday that the Community Notes feature on his social media app X was being "gamed" by governments and legacy media in favor of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and that he was working to "fix" it.

"Unfortunately, @CommunityNotes is increasingly being gamed by governments & legacy media. Working to fix this," he posted on X.

The "Community Notes" feature allows users to attach content to posts that could contain information to debunk the original post.

"It should be utterly obvious that a Zelenskyy-controlled poll about his OWN approval is not credible!! In reality, he is despised by the people of Ukraine, which is why he has refused to hold an election," he added.

Musk's statement comes soon after US President Donald Trump called Zelenskyy a "dictator" and accused him of having started Ukraine's war with Russia.
 

Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania's foreign minister between 2020 and November 2024, told DW that as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine nears its third year, European countries will need to face a new reality.

"I think that we have to prepare for a time when President Putin's goals and President Trump's goals are aligned and, unfortunately, they will be contrary to European and Ukrainian goals," he said.

Watch the entire interview with Gabrielius Landsbergis here:

French President Emmanuel Macron said France was entering a "new era" and that he would tell US President Donald Trump during a visit next week that he could not "be weak" with Vladimir Putin.

"I'm going to tell him: 'You can't be weak with President Putin," Macron said. "That's not who you are, it's not your trademark, it's not in your interest.'"

Trump is set to host Macron on Monday and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, the White House said.

Macron said France needed to increase its security amid shifting US-Russia relations, adding, "Russia poses an existential threat to Europeans."

"I am convinced that we are entering a new era. It will impose choices on us," Macron said. "We Europeans must increase our war effort."

Hungary has said it opposes additional European Union support for Ukraine proposed by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas that would amount to about €20 billion ($21 billion).

"We will not support spending European taxpayers' money to prolong the war," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto posted on X, adding that Hungary also would not support extending EU sanctions on Russian and Belarusian individuals.

It remained unclear to EU officials where Szijjarto got the total of €20 billion, when the envisaged support came to €6 billion.

Szijjarto said Trump's election in the United States had shifted global politics towards peace.

"We are closer than ever to a solution, as direct US-Russia talks have revived hope for peace," Szijjarto said.

While Hungary has long maintained close relations with Russia, it has also not completely blocked EU sanctions on Russia or the 27-country bloc's aid to Ukraine.

As the leaders of Ukraine and the United States traded barbs this week, Ukraine's Zelenskyy said Thursday he hoped for a strong relationship with Washington.

"Strong Ukraine-US relations benefit the entire world," Zelenskyy said following what he described as a "productive meeting" with US envoy Keith Kellogg that addressed the "battlefield situation, how to return our prisoners of war, and effective security guarantees."

In a post on X, Zelenskyy said, "We must and can ensure that peace is strong and lasting — so that Russia can never return with war."

"Ukraine is ready for a strong, effective investment and security agreement with the president of the United States," he added. "We have proposed the fastest and most constructive way to achieve results. Our team is ready to work 24/7."

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk pushed for additional air policing, stronger Baltic defenses and reinforced European Union borders with Russia, citing growing security concerns.

"Enough talking, it's time to act!" Tusk wrote on X. "Let's finance our aid for Ukraine from the Russian frozen assets."

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted two meetings with European leaders earlier this week to discuss how to move faster to increase defense spending, and how to move more quickly as Donald Trump's administration speeds up diplomacy to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The United States is ready to reduce — or increase — sanctions on Russia depending on the outcome of talks to end the war in Ukraine, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said.

President Donald Trump has rattled Kyiv and its European backers by conducting talks with Moscow without consulting US allies in Ukraine or Europe.

In reply to a question from Bloomberg News asking if the Treasury had plans for looser and stricter sanctions on Russia depending on the talks, Bessent replied: "I think that'd be a very good characterization."

Bessent had earlier proposed an offer to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy for Ukraine to hand over much of the country's minerals to the United States in exchange for US support. Kyiv rejected the offer.

"President Zelensky, when I met with him, assured me that he'd be signing the minerals deal in Munich. He has not," added Bessent, referring to last weekend's Munich Security Conference.

US Vice President JD Vance defended President Donald Trump's negotiations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. He also said an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine was near.

"How are you going to end the war unless you're talking to Russia?" Vance said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

"I really believe we're on the cusp of peace in Europe for the first time in three years," he added.

Robust security guarantees are needed to achieve a lasting peace for Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said during a visit to Slovakia.

"It is vital that any deal reached brings an enduring peace that Russia will never again try to take one more square kilometer of Ukrainian land," he told reporters in Bratislava.

"This will require robust (...) security guarantees, and NATO allies are actively discussing what that might entail," Rutte added.

The NATO chief also stressed that Europe has a vital role to play in securing peace in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump's special envoy for Ukraine did not give a press conference or any public statements following their meeting in Kyiv.

"At the request of the American side, the format of the meeting provides for protocol filming and does not include statements or questions," Zelenskyy's spokesperson Sergiy Nykyforov told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Kellogg met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Ruslan Stefanchuk, the Chairperson of Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.

The United States opposes labeling Russia an aggressor in a G7 statement on the third anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times reported, citing five Western officials familiar with the matter.

The participation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a virtual G7 summit on Monday has also not yet been agreed upon, the officials said.

US envoys have objected to the phrase "Russian aggression" and similar descriptions used by G7 leaders since 2022 to describe the conflict, the Western officials said.

The world's leading economies have traditionally issued a statement of support on February 24, the day the full-scale invasion began three years ago.

The disagreement comes after US President Donald Trump blamed Ukraine for the war, described Zelenskyy as a "dictator without elections," and suggested that Russia should be invited back into the G7.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call after US President Donald Trump claimed the Ukrainian president was "a dictator without elections."

In the call, the UK prime minister gave Zelensky his support "as Ukraine's democratically elected leader."

Starmer also said it was "perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War Two," according to a Downing Street spokesperson.

Zelenskyy was elected president of Ukraine in May 2019. Elections in Ukraine were previously scheduled for 2024 but were not held due to martial law.

A day after a heated exchange between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the White House urged Kyiv to rein in criticism and quickly sign a minerals deal pushed by Trump.

"They need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal," Mike Waltz, the White House national security adviser, said in an interview with Fox News.

The pushback from Ukraine on the mineral deal and how Trump is conducting peace talks is simply unacceptable, Waltz said, given everything the United States has done for Ukraine.

However, Waltz said that US differences with Ukraine were not irreconcilable, saying, "The president also said how much he loves the Ukrainian people."

Waltz also denied that US allies and Ukraine were not consulted in Trump's push to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

"There's a term for this in diplomacy. It's called shuttle diplomacy, because bringing everybody to the table at once just hasn't worked in the past," he said.

Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Zelenskyy had assured him that Ukraine would sign a $500 billion (€478.5 billion) deal to transfer rights to Ukrainian minerals, but hadn't signed it yet, Bloomberg News reported.