Zelenskyy’S Plea To Europe As Us-Led Russia Peace Talks Stall

In Copenhagen today, President Zelenskyy accompanied the Danish King and Prime Minister to pay respects to fallen Danish soldiers, a symbol of Ukraine's closeness to Europe as its ties with the US continue to fray. Now, as we keep worrying about whether the United States will bomb Iran again, and how many countries, how many people could suffer because of it, we are actually waiting to see what happens to our own societies. Because of price spikes, because of shortages of weapons we need for our defence, not offensive, We are speaking about defense, air defense, and we can already feel this shock. A Russian jet-powered drone struck a market in Chornomorsk near Odessa today, killing three people and proving the point. For their part, the Ukrainians today struck the port at Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea and ships carrying missiles in the Gulf of Finland. They believe that attacking Russia's military facilities and oil-dependent economy is their best form of defence. They also hit an oil refinery near Omsk with a deep strike drone. Day two of Ukraine-Russia talks mediated by the Americans in Abu Dhabi lasted only an hour and a half. The Russians and the Americans keen to show their closeness to each other and hostility to the Europeans. Concretely, what are the parameters? Once there are some concrete proposals, we will consider them. In the meantime, I think it would be useful for them to learn from American envoys about common sense, realism and a desire to achieve peace. If Europe could identify one person to speak on their behalf, that would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation. This evening, President Zelensky landed in Dublin for tomorrow's talks with European leaders, including the Taoiseach. The US envoys first go to Moscow to see President Putin. There you go, Pop. Well, President Zelensky has just been making some comments in Dublin. Here's what he said. Team held meetings in Abu Dhabi with the American and European side. The first positive thing I wanted to highlight is that the representatives of Europe were there, and that's very important because this war is in Europe, this war is in Ukraine, and ending this war without Europe's participation would be unjust, and it would be impossible, to put it simple. It's simple. And Lindsay's still with me. What do you make of that? Well, there is President Zelensky trying to pull the Europeans into this process Because he knows that without them... He has no protection. But what the Russians were saying today was, oh, there needs to be a new security architecture for Europe. Well, the Europeans would say that the only threat to their security is Russia. And the Russians are talking about, oh, we need to have non-aggression pacts with different individual NATO countries. In other words, trying to destroy the security architecture which already exists, which has existed since the end of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. So you can see there that there's very little chance that the Europeans and the Russians are going to agree on that. And that leaves the Ukrainians very exposed. The question is, Americans do. President Trump is a lame duck president. It may be that with a Democrat-led Congress and Senate, there's more pressure on him to favor the Ukrainians a little more, or at least to move slightly in that direction. But there's no indication that that's what he wants to do. With me now is Vladimir Ogryzko, former Ukrainian foreign minister and now director of the Center for Russian Studies in Kyiv. So tomorrow, Witkoff and Kushner will go to Vladimir Putin, what's he doing? What's he playing at? Frankly speaking, I do not think that it will be some practical results tomorrow, as there were no practical results except of one, what happened in Abu Dhabi, because the one practical result was that we agreed on 1,000 or 1,500 people who will be freed from Russian prisoners. Tomorrow probably Witkoff and Kushner will inform Putin about Ukrainian and, by the way, European position. And this is also very important because for the first time, in fact, European partners have been practically participating in these talks. Unfortunately, not officially, but nevertheless, in my view, it is a very important first step because next round, if we will have this round, will be with European partners. But you think this is largely diplomatic theatre? In fact, yes. Tomorrow, Putin will say, OK, I am for 100% for peace, but with means of war. I read yesterday a very brilliant formula, by the way, by one of British professors. He said, Putin is for peace negotiations, but not for peace. So it's a very good way of expressing it, I mean, from your point of view. But I mean, we also saw the Ukrainian negotiator today being very positive about Abu Dhabi and saying this was constructive. Why are they sounding positive? Not very positive. It is diplomatic theater, excuse me, to say this very openly, because, look, we have proposed... To stop fighting in the Black Sea region. What was the Russian answer? No. We have proposed stop hitting energy facilities. What was the Russian answer? No. We invited, in fact, Europeans to participate in these negotiations. What said Russia? No. Look, what can we discuss in fact? Would you like to be as angry in your language with Donald Trump, in truth, but you can't? Look, in my view, this is my personal view, it is not about official position. In my view, Trump is backing Putin. And all events we analyze prove this very practical conclusion. And so, as we go into this winter, we've been filming with Kyivians, you know, through very difficult times already. Do you think this is going to be the worst winter yet, since the full-scale invasion? Look, it could be, but on the other hand, look, we are Ukrainians. And this means that even in the very, very difficult situation, we will nevertheless never give up. This is our logic of life because we are fighting for ourselves, for our families, for our country. For what, in fact, Russians are fighting? For what? For another 100 square kilometers? They have not so much territory. They have, what I would like to say, they have no idea about this war. We have. Volodymyr Ogryzko, thank you very much indeed for your time. Thank you. Earlier, I spoke to the former Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, who now lives in exile in Latvia. And I asked him first what he thinks Putin's calculation has been in this round of talks. The calculation is very simple to imitate that he wants peace and send people just to have just talk talk talk nothing serious and we shouldn't expect that nothing serious and the results was zero as always was very very very good thing just exchange of prisoners as always happened but no movement to the ceasefire no movement to peace so why take part To imitate negotiations, to keep the outside world calm that Putin wants peace and he continue negotiating terms and conditions acceptable for him. Acceptable for him means capitulation of Ukraine and, of course, brave Ukrainians that stay strong and continue to protect their land. Russia has clearly been very successful. ...in persuading the Americans of their arguments. How do you think the results of the midterm elections, which have weakened Trump... Substantially, I mean that Congress will be much more pro-Ukraine than the White House has changed things. Midterm elections, result of midterm elections, of course, will have an influence. I would say the bipartisan support of Ukraine exists now and it will be stronger in a new Congress. And that's why I think the support of Americans to Ukraine continues to take place. But now that Trump is a lame duck, Do you think Putin will think he has to try and bring an end to this while Trump is still president? Because the next administration may be much more hostile to Russia. Putin believes that he could win his war of attrition because of the strong, tough winter and destroying all civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and energy infrastructure in particular. He believes that by spring, By spring, Ukrainians would be fed up of all their problems and they will press President Zelensky to accept Putin's conditions. I don't think he will be successful, but the war, unfortunately, continues. Right now, Putin is not prepared for any concessions at all. What pressure, if any, is Putin under from his own economy? Economy is already contracting, but state finance, I emphasize there's two different things, state finance in good shape at the moment. Because oil price is high and upcoming three, four months, that will be absolutely no problem for him. But if the United States and Europe continue to control the implementation of sanctions already imposed on Putin's regime, that could create a problem already for revenue in the first quarter. In this case, Putin would feel just already that problems, real crisis problems, crisis could come. Because economy is contracting and the second half of next year, the revenue will be much less. Already internally in Russia will be much less because of state of economy. The logic of what you're saying... Is that Putin will escalate this winter and continue his attacks on infrastructure, particularly focused on the cities in Ukraine? Exactly. I think that is his strategy for this winter. He will be expecting quite successful, I would say, pressure on Ukraine by himself without American, I would say, great pressure on him. Mikhail Kasyanov, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.