Zelenskiy Turns to EU Allies as Witkoff Heads to Russia

Ben Jensen, director of the Futures Lab at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says that the majority of modern conflicts do not end in a ceasefire as negotiators from the US attempt to build a peace plan that is acceptable to both Ukraine and Russia. Jensen says that his lab is using AI to look at different paths to peace, which negotiations might succeed and which deals are most likely to stick.

The European Union’s top diplomat expressed concern that US attempts to push Ukraine into a lopsided peace plan would only encourage Russia’s warmongering as Kyiv’s allies brace themselves for a week of talks to end Moscow’s invasion.

“I’m afraid all the pressure will be put on the weaker side because that is the easier way to stop this war when Ukraine surrenders,” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, told reporters in Brussels on Monday. “But this is not in anybody’s interest.”

Her remarks, made following an EU defense ministers’ meeting, come as a US delegation led by special envoy Steve Witkoff heads to Moscow for negotiations over Russia’s war in Ukraine on Tuesday. Kallas said the talks could be “pivotal.”

With pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration mounting as the draft deal heads to Moscow, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said updated language emerging out of talks in Switzerland and Florida over the last week “looks better” compared with an initial proposal that Kyiv’s allies said gave too much away to the Kremlin.

Still, he said, territory remains the most difficult topic and he expected to discuss the key issues in the plan with Trump.

“The meetings is a process, it is not over yet,” Zelenskiy said at a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday. “I’ll tell you frankly — the territorial issue is the most difficult.”

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