British Prime Minister Keir Starmer welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with a warm hug in front of the entrance to 10 Downing Street and next to a large Christmas tree for the four-way summit with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had previously arrived at the Prime Minister’s residence in London.
At the center of the meeting was the last round of negotiations to reach an end to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The president landed late Monday morning in the United Kingdom. Also yesterday Zelensky was in Brussels, while today at 3pm he will be received by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at Palazzo Chigi. In the evening it became known that Zelensky will meet Pope Leo today, Tuesday 9 December, at Castel Gandolfo. The meeting is scheduled at Villa Barberini at 9.30.
“There is no agreement on Donbass”
“There are visions of the United States, Russia and Ukraine. And we do not have a united vision on Donbass,” the Ukrainian president said in an interview with Bloomberg, after Trump criticized him, saying he was “disappointed” by the Ukrainian leader who, according to him, had not yet read the proposal, while Moscow would “agree” with the plan. Elements of the US plan require further discussions on a number of “sensitive issues”, including security guarantees and control over eastern regions, Zelensky said, stressing that Kiev is pushing for a separate agreement on security guarantees.
After meetings in London, Brussels and Rome “we will have our common vision” for the talks, and “I am ready to fly to the United States if President Trump is ready for this meeting”, Zelensky said again.
“What is very important today is unity between Europe, Ukraine and the United States,” added the Ukrainian president, speaking to journalists before the summit in Downing Street. “There are things we cannot manage without the Americans and things we cannot manage without Europe,” Zelensky added.
“The path to peace in Ukraine is difficult but we are making progress,” Starmer also said before the summit.
“The fate of Ukraine is the fate of Europe,” German Chancellor Merz said, speaking to journalists alongside Starmer, Zelensky and Macron before the four-party summit in Downing Street. Merz also expressed skepticism about some US proposals regarding negotiations to end the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. But at the same time he stressed that “it could be decisive days for all of us on Ukraine.”
Russia indicts Kiev for ‘genocide’
Meanwhile, Russia has indicted dozens of leaders and former Ukrainian political and military leaders for “genocide” of the ethnic Russian or Russian-speaking population of Donbass since 2014. President Zelensky is not included among the 41 accused by the general prosecutor’s office, while his predecessor Petro Poroshenko, Defense Minister Denys Shmygal, the former head of the armed forces Valeriy Zaluzhny, the current one Oleksandr Syrsky, former presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak and Rustem Umerov, secretary of the National Security Council and head of the Ukrainian delegation for peace negotiations.
In a statement, the General Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had “approved the indictment in the criminal case against the political and military leadership of Ukraine”. The 41 leaders and former leaders are charged in absentia under Article 357 of the Russian Criminal Code, namely “genocide”. All were included in Moscow’s wanted list.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, nearly 5,000 civilians were killed and 13,500 were injured, including 1,275 minors. According to the indictment, as a result, over 2.3 million citizens were forced to flee their homes and the combined population of the two regions fell from 6.5 to 4.5 million.