Ukraine ready to hold talks with Russia once ceasefire in place, Zelenskiy says

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Ukraine would be ready to hold talks with Russia in any format once a ceasefire deal is
in place and the fighting has stopped, Reuters reported. The Ukrainian leader also told reporters at a briefing that a Ukrainian delegation
meeting officials from Western countries in London on Wednesday would have a mandate to discuss a full or partial ceasefire. We are ready to
record that after a ceasefire, we are ready to sit down in any format so that there are no dead ends, Zelenskiy said in the presidential
office in Kyiv. It will not be possible to agree on everything quickly, he warned, noting numerous highly complex issues such as territory,
security guarantees and Ukraines membership in the NATO military alliance. He said that Ukraine would not recognise Moscows de jure control
of the peninsula of Crimea as part of any deal as such a move would go against the Ukrainian constitution
Russia seized Crimea in 2014 and later annexed it. Ukraine, he said, would be ready to partner with the United States to restore the work
of the vast, Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
There had been no such formal proposal from Washington about that, however, he added. The talks in London, which are set to bring together
officials from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine, come amid a flurry of United States -led diplomatic efforts to find
a way to end Russias war with Ukraine, read the report. In an apparent change of plan, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio will
not be attending the talks in London, a State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday, adding that Washingtons Ukraine envoy General Keith
Kellogg would attend. Zelenskiy said he would be happy to meet United States President Donald Trump later this week when they attend the
funeral of Pope Francis along with other world leaders. Ukraine, Zelenskiy said, would also step up its diplomatic outreach this week and
that he would meet South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, as well as the leaders of Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic. The post Ukraine
ready to hold talks with Russia once ceasefire in place, Zelenskiy says first appeared on TINS News.