{"id":45645,"date":"2025-03-21T03:15:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T03:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=45645"},"modified":"2025-03-21T03:15:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T03:15:37","slug":"zelensky-tells-russia-to-drop-unnecessary-demands-ahead-of-peace-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/?p=45645","title":{"rendered":"Zelensky tells Russia to drop ‘unnecessary’ demands ahead of peace talks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukrainian and US officials will meet for peace talks in Saudi Arabia next Monday, after the Kremlin confirmed US-Russia talks there the same day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine’s leader said Russian President Vladimir Putin “must stop making unnecessary demands that only prolong the war”. Moscow’s demands include a complete end to military assistance for Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelensky also warned that taking Nato membership for Ukraine off the table<\/a> – something Putin has said was non-negotiable for peace – would be a “big gift to Russia”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also rebuffed claims by the White House that he discussed ceding ownership of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants to the US during a call with President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest talks come as the US attempts to broker a ceasefire between the two nations after more than three years of fighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Zelensky and Putin have agreed to a ceasefire in principle during conversations with the US – but one has yet to materialise due to conflicting conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russian leader most recently agreed to a halt to air strikes on energy infrastructure<\/a> – but such strikes from both sides have continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelensky said a Ukrainian delegation would hand the US a list of infrastructure facilities it wants to be protected from Russian strikes at Monday’s talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about the White House touting the possible US ownership of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants<\/a> at a joint news conference with Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re in Oslo, Zelensky ruled this out entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that the two had discussed the Zaporizhia power plant – which is currently under Russian control – in his phone call with Trump, but stressed that “all nuclear power plants belong to the people of Ukraine”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he said he was open to the US taking the plant from Russia to invest in or modernise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had earlier said that US ownership “would be the best protection for that infrastructure”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked if he was ready to make territorial concessions to Russia, particularly Crimea, which has been in Russian hands since 2014, Zelensky said: “That is a Ukrainian peninsula,” adding that Crimea was an “integral part” of his country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crimea is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, despite Russia’s occupation and claimed annexation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked what a ceasefire might look like, Zelensky said the first stage would have to be a ceasefire by land and sea, as Ukraine sees this as the only way to stop Russian aggression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump was able to extract an agreement for a ceasefire on energy infrastructure – which Russia has repeatedly targeted – from Putin in a call on Tuesday, but nothing more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC: Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukrainian and US officials will meet for peace talks in Saudi Arabia next Monday, after the Kremlin confirmed US-Russia talks there the same day. Ukraine’s leader said Russian President Vladimir Putin “must stop making unnecessary demands that only prolong the war”. Moscow’s demands include a complete end to military assistance for Ukraine. Zelensky also warned that taking Nato membership for Ukraine off the table – something Putin has said was non-negotiable for peace – would be a “big gift to Russia”. He also rebuffed claims by the White House that he discussed ceding ownership of Ukraine’s nuclear… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45647,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45645\/revisions\/45647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}