Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Europe’s response to the conflict with the US, saying the continent needed to show more courage and described it as a “fractured kaleidoscope” of small and medium powers.
“Instead of playing a leading role in protecting freedom around the world, especially as America’s focus shifts elsewhere, Europe seems to be lost in trying to persuade the US president to change,” Zelensky said in a fiery speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on Thursday.
Zelenskyy has differed with the US in recent weeks and asked Europe to seize Russian tankers carrying “oil to support the war on Ukraine”. He seized the ships loaded with oil from Venezuela.
“Europe likes to talk about the future, but we refrain from taking action today, which will define what kind of future we will have.” “Why can President (Donald) Trump stop tankers from shadow ships and hold oil, but Europe can’t?”
As he concluded his speech, the French navy, acting on intelligence from the UK, intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea in a mission on Thursday against sanctioned Russian shadow vessels, according to reports.
“The operation was carried out in full compliance with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on X.
He added: “The activity of the shadow fleet (of Russia) has contributed to the financing of the war of aggression against Ukraine.”
French naval authorities said the ship Grinch was suspected of operating under a false flag in the Mediterranean. The French navy is escorting the ship to port for further inspections, it said in a statement.
After the speech, Zelenskyy praised it on social media as “an exactly needed solution”.
US delegation to meet Putin.
In a short question and answer session after the speech. Zelenskyy said that there will be two-day tripartite meetings between Ukraine, Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, starting Friday.
“The Russians must be ready to compromise, because you know, everyone must be ready, not only Ukraine.”
Zelensky said on social media that he had discussed peace talks and air defense supplies during a “productive” meeting with Trump as the White House pushed for an end to the nearly four-year war.
“Our previous meeting with President Trump helped strengthen the protection of our skies, and I hope we will strengthen it even more this time,” Zelensky wrote on X.
Trump also praised the “good” talks he had with Zelenskiy in Davos and said his message to Russian President Vladimir Putin was that the war in Ukraine must end.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials have spent weeks engaged in frenetic diplomacy as Kiev faces pressure from Trump, although there are no signs that Moscow wants to end the war.
Trump did not provide any further details about the content of the hour-long conversation. On Wednesday, Trump said the deal was “reasonably close.”
“If both sides want to resolve this, we will resolve it,” Steve Witkoff, Ukraine’s U.S. representative, told an audience at WEF on Thursday morning. I think we’ve made a lot of progress.
Witkoff and fellow US envoy Jared Kushner – Trump’s son-in-law – met with Putin later on Thursday to discuss a plan to end Europe’s deadliest war since World War II.
The Kremlin said the meeting would take place between 7pm and 6pm Moscow time.
Russia is good at the US-led peace push. The main sticking point is believed to be Putin’s claim to all of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Despite Russia’s presence on the battlefield, Ukrainian forces still hold about 20 percent, or about 5,000 square kilometers.
Moscow wants Ukrainian forces to withdraw from Donetsk, something Kiev refuses to do.
Donetsk The 2022 referendum is one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow has rejected as a sham by Kiev and Western countries.
Most countries recognize Donetsk as part of Ukraine. Putin has said that Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk – which together form the Donbass region – are part of Russia’s “historic lands”.
Putin said in the early hours of Wednesday that a “peace board” has been set up to help build peace around the world on the basis of Trump’s proposal to settle Ukraine and restore seized Russian assets held by Moscow.
Critics said the resolution would compete with or undermine the United Nations.
In the dead of winter, it attacks power
Zelenskyy is facing an energy crisis at home due to Russian airstrikes in the capital and other regions without power and heating.
During the fighting, Russian airstrikes hit several areas of Ukraine on Thursday.
Russia used a new hypersonic missile to strike western Ukraine, sending a clear warning to Kiev’s NATO allies. It is the second time the missile has been used in the four-year war. CBC’s Briar Stewart explains.
A 17-year-old boy was killed in a drone attack on a residential building in the southern region of Odesa, the head of the region said.
A ballistic missile hit a residential building in central Krivi, injuring 11 people.
In Kiev, nearly 3,000 high-rises in the city remained without heat on Thursday after the latest Russian offensive earlier this week.