President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine met with President-elect Donald J. Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France forward of Notre-Dame Cathedral’s grand reopening on Saturday, an occasion Ukraine sees as an opportunity to press its case to the world leaders in attendance.
Mr. Zelensky’s assembly with Mr. Trump was the primary face-to-face encounter between the 2 since Mr. Trump gained the U.S. presidential election final month.
Mr. Zelensky stepped into the Élysée Palace simply after Mr. Macron met with Mr. Trump there, and the three posed for footage forward of a trilateral assembly.
In current weeks, Ukrainian officers have sought to interact with Mr. Trump’s incoming administration, aiming to affect its plans for a swift finish to the warfare with Russia in a approach that aligns as a lot as attainable with Ukraine’s pursuits.
These plans have to date been imprecise, however officers in Kyiv are involved that Mr. Trump’s imprecise pledge to finish the warfare in 24 hours might end in Russia holding the territory it has captured and ignoring Ukraine’s demand to hitch NATO as a safety assure to forestall additional assaults.
Just this week, a delegation of senior Ukrainian officers and authorities members visited the United States and met with JD Vance, the vice president-elect; Representative Mike Waltz of Florida, Mr. Trump’s choose for nationwide safety adviser; and Keith Kellogg, Mr. Trump’s selection for envoy to Ukraine and Russia. Leading the delegation was Andriy Yermak, Mr. Zelensky’s highly effective chief of employees.
Volodymyr Fesenko, a Ukrainian political analyst, stated the go to’s purpose was to introduce Mr. Yermak to the American officers as Ukraine’s chief negotiator, current Ukraine’s stance on future peace talks and gauge the long run Trump administration’s place on the negotiations.
“What is going on now could be simply the primary act of a prelude to the negotiations to return,” Mr. Fesenko wrote in a put up on Facebook.
Ukraine’s outreach to Mr. Trump’s group has coincided with an obvious shift in Kyiv’s public stance on peace talks. After years of vowing to not cede territory to Russia, Mr. Zelensky has just lately instructed he would think about doing in order a method to finish the warfare, in return for NATO membership. Ukraine, he added, would then search to regain its occupied territory by way of negotiations.
