The American special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet this weekend with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyand others European leaders in Berlinas Washington pushes for a agreement to end the war with Russia.
Before the meeting, Zelensky warned on Saturday that Russia “continues to aim to destroy” Ukraineafter kyiv claimed that “massive” Russian attacks on energy facilities overnight had left thousands of people across the country without power. Moscow said it attacked Ukrainian facilities with hypersonic ballistic missiles in retaliation for Ukrainian attacks.
The president Donald Trump unveiled last month a peace plan criticized for favoring the main Moscow demandsamong them that Ukraine cedes crucial territories. The tycoon has intensified the pressure on kyiv to reach a dealwhile Ukrainian officials say they sent Washington an updated plan based on the original 28-point proposal.
Rapid accession to the EU
A White House official confirmed to AFP on Friday that Witkoff would meet with Zelensky and European leaders over the weekend in Berlin to discuss the status of peace negotiations. He german government had announced that the Monday will host the leadersincluding heads of the European Union (EU) and NATOa few hours after Zelensky attended a German-Ukrainian business forum with the chancellor Friedrich Merz.
On Friday it became known that the idea of rapid accession of Ukraine to the EU already appears in the latest version of a US plan to end the war, which began with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. According to the most recent version of the US plan, kyiv’s accession to the EU would occur starting January 2027A source familiar with the matter told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He block accession process It usually takes years and requires the unanimous vote of its 27 members. Some countries like Hungary have systematically opposed to the accession of the former Soviet republic. However, Trump has the influence to convince leaders who oppose Ukraine’s accession to change their stance, Zelensky declared Thursday. kyiv has been fighting to join the EU for some time and has carried out a series of reforms in this regard since the pro-European revolution of 2014. But the country still shows difficulties in ending a endemic corruptionbasic requirement to enter the block.
“A long process”
Moscow indicated that he was suspicious of efforts to modify the US plan, to which has largely shown its support. “We have the impression that this version (…) will get worse,” he declared on Friday Yuri Ushakovforeign policy advisor to the Kremlin, to the economic newspaper Kommersant.
“It will be a long process“he added, detailing that Moscow has seen an updated version of the plan since talks between President Putin and US envoys Witkoff and Jared Kushner last week.
The day before, Zelensky had stated that Washington only wants Ukraine, and not Russia, to withdraw its troops from parts of the eastern Donetsk regionwhere a “free economic zone” demilitarized.
