Ukraine Peace Talks: Fire, Doubt, and Delayed Hope
Firefighters in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia rush to put out a cluster of blazes caused by Russian drone attacks Tuesday night.
The strikes injured several people and damaged apartment blocks, private homes and other buildings.
Zaporizhzhia’s Russian-installed governor says Kyiv launched its own attack, cutting power to tens of thousands.
Talks of peace in distant cities like Geneva aren’t making a difference either way in Ukraine as attacks continue.
But in Washington, US President Donald Trump remains optimistic a peace plan he’s put forth will make a difference in time.
Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, Trump gave his update on how the talks are going.
Donald Trump (US PRESIDENT):
It's not easy, but I think we're going to get there. 25,000 soldiers, Ukraine, Russia in the last month, 25,000 soldiers have died. So, I think we're getting very close to a deal. We'll find out.
He says he’s sending US envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow to meet with Russia’s President Putin, and he’s also deploying Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to meet with the Ukrainians.
Trump’s initial plan had been favorable to Moscow, but it’s been revised to reflect Ukrainian concerns. Trump says only a few points of disagreement are left.
Ukraine and its European allies aren’t quite so sure.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy (UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT):
But we must also not lose sight of reality. Russia's war against us is not in the past. It's happening every single day. Every day Russia takes Ukrainian lives.
French President Emmanuel Macron, one of those on the video call, also showed doubts about a fast end to negotiations.
Emmanuel Macron (FRENCH PRESIDENT):
There is clearly no Russian willingness to agree to a ceasefire today, and the remarks made by the Russian Foreign Minister in the past few hours, after the Geneva talks, showed this. He said there was no willingness to discuss the so-called amended plan that emerged from the Geneva discussions.
Russia wants Ukraine to cede land and pledge to stay out of NATO.
It says it doesn’t know what’s in the now-revised peace plan.
And it’s warned that if there have been major changes, it might not be so willing to accept it.
One Ukrainian negotiator says the changes to the peace plan include items that Ukraine wanted. But he says without a final version, it’s still very much “wait and see.”
There are some things going on in the media, but I will tell you, I see that there are a lot of misinterpretations going on today already, yesterday. So I would be very careful with assessments like someone accepts everything, like Ukraine, or someone says it's no-go and no non-starter, whatever. I would abstain making these straightforward comments.
So, for Ukrainians, a nearly four-year-old war grinds on—killing and destroying with no end yet in sight.
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