Zelenskyy is not against Europe’s direct negotiations with Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy supports direct dialogue between European countries and Moscow, provided that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin takes the negotiations seriously.
According to Censor.NET, Zelenskyy made this statement in an interview with Bloomberg.
"I am not opposed to Europe conducting negotiations with Russia, especially now that the US is exerting pressure and Europe has begun to discuss security guarantees. We are moving toward the final stage, even if we do not yet know what it will look like," the Ukrainian president added.
Contacts between Putin and European leaders
After the start of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, the nature of contacts between Vladimir Putin and European leaders changed radically. Most EU countries opted for a policy of diplomatic isolation of the Kremlin, but some leaders continued to maintain contact in an attempt to stop the war or resolve humanitarian issues.
In the first months of the invasion, the leaders of France and Germany tried to act as mediators. Former Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer became the first EU leader to visit Moscow in person after the invasion began in April 2022. The visit was "tough and unfriendly," according to the chancellor himself.
After the crimes in Bucha were exposed and new territories were annexed, the intensity of the discussions dropped to almost zero.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán remains the only EU leader who maintains regular personal contact.
Macron and Scholz stopped their regular conversations at the end of 2022. Scholz's last recorded call before November 2024 was in December 2022.
The situation began to change amid preparations for peace talks and changes in the political landscape in the United States.
In early 2026, the leaders of Italy and France began to speak out in favor of resuming high-level dialogue so that Europe would not be excluded from the settlement process, which is currently being actively initiated by the US.
