Zelenskyy denies war with Russia at ‘stalemate’

KYIV (Agencies): President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has denied that Ukraine’s war with Russia had reached a “stalemate”, pushing back at suggestions Western leaders were lobbying for peace talks. The sprawling front line between the two warring sides has barely moved in almost a year, with one senior Ukrainian official warning this week that the conflict was deadlocked.

“Time has passed, people are tired … But this is not a stalemate,” Zelenskyy told a news conference on Saturday in Kyiv with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The Ukrainian leader also rejected the idea that Western countries were putting pressure on Kyiv to enter negotiations with Russia, amid reports US and EU officials had discussed what such talks would entail.

“No one among our partners is pressuring us to sit down with Russia, talk to it, and give it something,” he said. Such pressure existed before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and at the beginning of the fighting, but “today, none of the EU leaders or the US are putting pressure on me to sit down with Russia, negotiate and give Russia anything. There will be no such thing,” he added.