Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday (March 3) Kyiv was committed to intensive diplomacy to bring a rapid end to the three-year-old war with Russia and stressed that he hoped to be able to rely on US support in securing peace.
Zelenskiy issued a series of statements, three days after his White House meeting with US Donald Trump descended into acrimonious exchanges, underscoring the need for urgent diplomacy and the importance of US backing for them.
Zelenskiy's statements came after Trump suggested his patience was running out with the Ukrainian leader, following an AP report that quoted Zelenskiy saying at the weekend that the end of the war was "very, very far away".
Zelenskiy had been attending a weekend meeting of Ukraine's European allies devoted to working out a plan for a settlement of the war — two days after the White House row.
"It is very important that we try to make our diplomacy really substantive to end this war the soonest possible," Zelenskiy initially wrote on X.
"We are working together with America and our European partners and very much hope for US support on the path to peace. Peace is needed as soon as possible."
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Since the heated exchanges in the White House, Zelenskiy has gone out of his way to stress that relations with Washington are a priority and that he is sure they can be put right.
Ukraine's parliament added its support on Monday for diplomacy and solid ties with Washington with a statement describing Trump's peacekeeping efforts as "decisive".
In subsequent comments on the Telegram messaging app, Zelenskiy stressed unity between Ukraine and its partners, including the United States, following a telephone call with the leaders of the three Baltic states, which support Ukraine but did not attend Sunday's summit of European nations in London.
Zelenskiy said he filled them in on the outcome of the meeting and repeated that Ukraine needed security guarantees as part of any settlement of the conflict.
"Together, we must prepare an action plan to bring us closer to real security guarantees. There are concrete initiatives and we will keep working," he wrote.
"Unity with all our partners is important for us in order to end the war as quickly as possible and provide a reliable and durable peace," Zelenskiy added. "Ukraine, Europe and the USA — only together can we bring security back for all our people. And this is truly possible."
The Ukrainian president drove his point home in his nightly video address, saying the absence of security guarantees had been a major factor behind Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and a revolt eight years earlier by Russia-backed separatists who seized swathes of territory in eastern Ukraine.
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"And now, due to the lack of clear security guarantees, Russia is keeping this war going. The whole world sees this and the whole world acknowledges it," he said.
"Ukraine, all of Europe and America, together we can ensure decades of stability. To achieve this, we must be constructive, work together, complement each others' proposals and accelerate diplomacy to end the war."
Ukraine's parliament added its support with a statement describing Trump's peacekeeping efforts as "decisive" in ending the war.
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