Zelensky ready for diplomatic end to war

KYIV:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Kyiv would like to end the war with Russia next year through "diplomatic means", as both countries prepare for Donald Trump's return to the White House.

February 2025 would mark the third anniversary of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, with Russia's troops gaining ground in recent months against Kyiv's outmanned and outgunned soldiers.

Zelensky spoke a day after saying the war will end "sooner" than it otherwise would have done once Trump becomes president. He also spoke a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin held his first phone call with a major Western leader in nearly two years, speaking to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who initiated the call despite Kyiv's objections.

"For our part, we must do everything we can to ensure that this war ends next year. We have to end it by diplomatic means," Zelensky said in an interview with Ukrainian radio. "And this, I think, is very important."

There have been no meaningful talks between Russia and Ukraine, but Trump's re-election has plunged the brutal conflict's future into uncertainty, with the Republican repeatedly promising to cut a quick deal to end the war.

"We have to understand what the Russians want," Zelensky said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will only accept talks with Ukraine if Kyiv surrenders Ukrainian territory that Moscow occupies.

The Kremlin said he repeated that demand in the phone conversation with Scholz on Friday.

Zelensky has rejected Putin's conditions.

Ukraine was angered after Germany's Scholz reached out to Putin on Friday. Berlin said Scholz "condemned Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and called on President Putin to withdraw troops".

It also said Scholz "urged Russia to show willingness to negotiate with Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace".

But Ukraine accused Scholz of an "attempt at appeasement" and said the call would not achieve anything other than minimise Putin's "isolation".

The chancellor -- whose fragile coalition government collapsed last week -- also faced blowback at home, with the conservative opposition party accusing the centre-left leader of handing Putin a "propaganda win".

On Saturday, the G7 -- which includes many of Kyiv's key backers -- said Russia remained the sole obstacle to a just peace in Ukraine, pledging sanctions targeting Moscow.

"We will remain united by Ukraine's side," the Group of Seven industrialised nations said in a statement marking 1,000 days of the invasion.

Zelensky said on Saturday that Russian forces were suffering heavy losses and that the advance had "slowed down" in some areas.

Ukraine was "at war with a state that does not value its people, that has a lot of equipment, that does not care how many people die", he added.