Ukraine war will end ‘sooner’ with return of Trump: Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Kiev hopes the war with Russia will end “sooner” through diplomatic means with the arrival of the new Republican US president Donald Trump in 2025.

Zelensky said on Friday Kiev must do everything possible to end the war next year through talks rather than military force.

“We have to do everything we can to ensure that this war ends next year,” he said in a radio interview.

“And on our part, through diplomatic routes, to end it. And this, I think, is very important,” he added in the same interview.

Zelensky further added on Saturday he was certain the war with Russia will “end sooner” than it otherwise would have once the US President-elect returns to the White House in January.

He said he had a “constructive exchange” with Trump during a phone call after Trump’s election victory earlier this month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a statement from the Kremlin on Friday, that any peace deal should acknowledge Russia’s territorial gains and security demands, including that Kiev renounces its bid to join NATO.

Russia has repeatedly pointed out that it launched its military campaign in Donbas with the objective to stop NATO’s encroachment on its borders.

Ukraine’s Zelensky says Scholz-Putin phone call opens ‘Pandora’s box’

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky criticizes Germany’s Chancellor, saying Olaf Scholz’ call to his Russian counterpart opens a “Pandora’s box”.

Trump, who has long been critical of US military aid to Kiev, repeatedly during his election campaign, had promised to end the war in Ukraine “in a day” without going into specifics about how he intends to achieve the truce.

Since Moscow launched its special military operation in eastern Ukraine in February 2022 Kiev has received a multitude of shipments of weapons and ammunition worth tens of billions of dollars from the US-led Western countries backing Zelensky in the proxy war against Russian troops.

Forty-one percent of the military aid has been reportedly supplied by the United States, and the rest, mainly by Germany, followed by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Denmark, as the five top Western countries supplying arms and munitions to Kiev to fight Russian troops.

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy reported earlier this year that by the end of June, Washington had delivered or committed to sending Kiev military packages worth over $55 billion.

In related news on Saturday, G7 leaders released a statement affirming their support for Ukraine as the thousandth day of the war approaches.

“We stand in solidarity contributing to its fight for sovereignty, freedom, independence, territorial integrity and its reconstruction. We recognize, too, the impact of Russia’s aggression on vulnerable people across the world,” part of the joint G7 leaders’ statement read.

However, despite the West’s all-out support, supplying weaponry including long-range missiles, tanks, and jet planes, Zelensky has failed to achieve any breakthroughs in Ukraine's war against Russia.

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