Russian-Ukrainian peace still far from the fire

Ukrainian military/PHOTO via X @ZelenskyyUa

JAKARTA - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said no consensus had been reached on key territorial questions as part of a possible peace settlement with Russia, after two days of talks between Ukrainian, American and European negotiators in Berlin, Germany.

The condition of the peace proposal negotiations is strange about the issue of the surrender of the territory that Russia wants. Peace in Ukraine is like a far-fetched thing.

"On other issues, there is progress," Zelenskyy said in his statement, quoted by ABC News, Tuesday, December 16.

US government officials signaled on Monday that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine may be closer than ever.

Ukraine's demands for U.S.-backed security guarantees and the fate of four partially occupied Ukrainian regions have dominated the latest American efforts for a peace settlement to end Russia's full-scale invasion, which launched in February 2022.

Russia annexed Crimea - which it seized in 2014 - and partially annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, in southern and eastern Ukraine.

Moscow demands that Ukraine withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk - which together make up the region known as Donbas - in return for a cessation of hostilities.

Zelenskyy on Monday reiterated Ukraine's position, that it does not want to hand over the Donbass region to Russia.

He also said the demilitarised area or "free economic zone" covering the region could not be under Russian leadership.

"This is an important feature for me in any format for Donbas," Zelenskyy said.

"Both de jure and de facto we will not recognize Donbas as a Russian territory - a temporarily occupied part. Nevertheless, we are discussing the issue of the territory, and you know that it is one of the key issues," he continued.

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Zelenskyy hinted at progress on the issue of Western security guarantees to deter future Russian aggression, without which Kyiv says it cannot agree to a peace deal.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said after Monday's talks, "The legal and material guarantees that the US has put forward in Berlin are really extraordinary. This is a very important step forward, which I very much welcome."

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