“Move to diplomacy” – the president of Ukraine revealed plans for 2025

Ukraine is not strong enough for diplomatic steps aimed at ending the war, as not everything has been implemented from its “victory plan” presented to its partners this fall. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in response to RFE/RL’s question about Kyiv’s readiness for possible negotiations with Russia.

“Strengthening of our army, strengthening of our economy. Regarding the economy, it seems to me that the partners have taken important steps… We are financially secure for next year. I believe that this also strengthens Ukraine. But not everything has been done to say that Ukraine is strong for certain diplomatic steps,” the president said in Brussels.

Zelensky emphasized his readiness to do everything possible to strengthen Ukraine’s position in 2025.

“We will do everything so that next year we can be strong and move on to diplomacy. To be honest, I don’t believe that Putin wants the war to end, so we’ll figure it out. In any case, from our side, we will do everything to end this war fairly for us, for Ukraine,” the head of the country summed up.

Earlier in an interview with the French publication Le Parisien, Zelenskyy repeated that Ukraine does not have enough forces to retake the occupied Crimea and part of Donbas, which Russia “physically” controls. According to Zelenskyi, Ukraine today is neither in a strong nor in a weak position for talks with the Russian Federation about ending the war.

On December 6, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that peace in Ukraine is possible only if Ukraine renounces NATO membership and loses part of its territories.

On December 18-19, Zelensky is visiting Brussels, where he is discussing with the leaders of the EU and NATO countries the strengthening of Ukraine to further fight against Russian aggression and the possibility of ending the war.