Zelensky: «Putin failed, he didn’t obtain his objectives» | EUROtoday

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Vladimir Putin “has failed, he has not achieved his war goals”: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated this on the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Kiev “will do whatever is necessary” to attain a strong and lasting peace,” Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky said from Kiev. “We Ukrainians are exhausted by the conflict and wish to finish it as quickly as attainable, but when we give Putin the whole lot he asks for, we can have misplaced the whole lot,” Zelensky said in an interview with CNN, adding that this is not an option.

European diplomacy also wanted to send its message. “The Europeans have a clear plan: a just peace in Ukraine.” For this reason they are ready to “enhance stress on Russia”, while the will to support Kiev remains “unshakable”. This is what the foreign ministers of the E3, the German Johann Wadephul, the French Jean-Noel Barrot and the Polish Radoslaw Sikorski, wrote in a joint speech in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion. In the message entitled “Europe is out of breath”, they state: Putin’s plan has “massively failed”, NATO is “extra united than ever”, and Europe is “stronger and extra resilient”.

Russia, for its part, claims that it is impossible to resolve the conflict in Ukraine without addressing the issue of NATO expansion towards Russian borders, indicated by Moscow as one of the main causes of the war. This was stated by the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova to Russian agencies. “The uncontrolled expansion of the Alliance’s geopolitical space to our borders, including Ukraine, has become one of the root causes of the conflict,” Zakharova said, adding that “without its elimination a solution to the crisis is impossible.”

Finally, the discontent of the EU leaders, expressed by the President of the EU Council Antonio Costa. Since the war broke out in Ukraine “we have now a brand new EU. Then we have now full settlement to assist Ukraine” even if “generally it’s not simple to make selections”, said Costa speaking with a group of international media, including ANSA, during the train journey to Kiev. On Hungary’s veto on the loan for Kiev, Costa added: “It is completely unacceptable {that a} member state doesn’t respect what was agreed by the European Council. I’m relying on all 27 member states to maintain their commitments. Sooner, reasonably than later, we can have the mortgage.”