A whole host of world leaders convened in Kyiv on Monday to mark the third anniversary of the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Ukraine will insist that a tribunal be set up to hold those responsible for the war accountable “even when we go to diplomacy”, as Russia’s full-scale invasion enters its fourth year.
“When we speak about just peace, it is difficult to find what is just about this war. We will never forget and we cannot forget. These people will answer,” the Ukrainian President said in response to a question from Euronews. “Of course, we will work on (a) tribunal, even after the hard part of this war, even when we go to diplomacy.”
Zelenskyy, speaking in Kyiv alongside several world leaders who made the trip to mark the third anniversary of the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, expressed hope that the war could end “this year”.
Ukraine and Europe have so far been sidelined from talks between Washington and Moscow that started following a phone call between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin held less than two weeks ago.
Comments from Trump that blamed Ukraine for the war instead of Russia, as well as from US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth who said Kyiv’s goal of becoming a NATO ally was “unrealistic” have fuelled fears in Europe that Ukraine could be forced into a deal that would be detrimental to its, and the wider continent’s security.
Spooked European leaders have held several meetings to come up with joint positions and security guarantees they could provide Ukraine as part of a peace deal and a special summit is to be held on 6 March on the topic.
‘Much too early’ to discuss sanction relief
European Council president Antonio Costa, who convened the extraordinary summit, reiterated on Monday from Kyiv that “only Ukraine can decide their conditions to start effective, credible and sustainable peace negotiations.”
“All of us welcome the huge effort from President Trump to push Putin to negotiations and I am hopeful. But only Ukraine can decide,” he said. He also called for the appointment of a special envoy that would also represent non-EU European states including the UK and Norway.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, meanwhile said that the bloc would only relent in rolling out new sanction packages against Russia after Moscow takes “concrete steps” towards peace after Washington suggested Europe would only be brought into the negotiations once the issue of restrictive measures is brought up.
EU foreign affairs ministers gathered in Brussels on Monday approved a 16th package of punitive measures.
“What we see is that the sanctions already have a massive effect on the Russian economy,” von der Leyen said from Kyiv, citing “skyrocketing inflation” and “spiralling interest rates”.
She argued that sanctions are part of the bloc’s “approach that we want peace through strength” and that “it’s much too early” to discuss sanctions relief.
‘We in Europe need to get our act together’
For Zelenskyy, the biggest security guarantee that Western partners can provide is membership to the EU and NATO, which he said “will help us very much” in deterring any future Russian attack.
European leaders around the table with him in Kyiv by and large agreed with Costa calling EU accession “the most important security guarantee” and Lithuania’s President, Gitanas Nauseda, saying a realistic date for Ukraine to become a full-fledged EU member state would be “1 January 2030”.
“NATO membership we understand not everything is in our hands. But the European membership is in our hands. And Ukraine is doing really great job in such complicated circumstances,” Nauseda said.
Europe’s diplomatic flurry over Ukraine and European security was set to continue later on Monday with a meeting between France’s Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump in Washington.
The Élysée said ahead of the meeting that Macron would bring “proposals for action”, honed between European leaders following several meetings in Paris last week, to ensure continued unified support for Ukraine and that Europe’s voice is represented at the negotiating table.
“We in Europe need to get our act together and have a plan to [offer] the Americans otherwise we will not get into the negotiations,“ Finnish President Alexander Stubb said from Kyiv.
“This meeting has been important and the next two weeks are crucial for European security,” he added.
