Volodymyr Zelenskyy has lashed out at Europe during his Davos speech ahead of a trilateral meeting between Ukraine, the US and Russia on Friday.
In a speech that at times seemed reminiscent of Donald Trump’s attitude towards Europe, the Ukrainian president warned the continent about a never-ending “groundhog day”, and accused European countries of a lack of action.
“Just last year here in Davos, I ended my speech with the words ‘Europe needs to know how to defend itself’. A year has passed and nothing has changed,” he said.
“We are still in a situation where I must say the same words,” he lamented.
In his speech, Zelenskyy also called for a “united armed forces” for Europe while emphasising how reliant Europe is on US military support.
Zelenskyy’s speech came after a “positive” meeting with Trump, with the leader saying a peace plan was “nearly ready, and that really matters”.
The remarks over progress on peace talks come ahead of what Zelenskyy calls the “first trilateral meeting” between Ukraine, the US and Russia in the UAE.
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Moscow correspondent
On the face of it, a trilateral meeting in Abu Dhabi tomorrow would be a significant development. It would be the first time the Russians, Ukrainians and Americans are in the same room.
But we still don’t know what will be discussed, or at what level. And we still don’t know if it’ll even happen.
Here’s what we do know…
The talks were first mentioned by US envoy Steve Witkoff at an event in Davos this morning. He said that he and Jared Kushner would travel to the UAE directly from Moscow tonight for meetings with working groups from both sides on specific aspects of the peace plan, including “military to military” issues.
President Zelenskyy then mentioned the talks in his speech. He said they’d be at a “technical level”. But afterwards, Kyiv announced it’ll be sending its top team, including lead negotiator Rustem Umerov as well as Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov.
The attendance of such senior figures could indicate that the meeting has taken greater significance than originally planned. Perhaps something changed over the course of the day, maybe in the meeting with Zelenskyy and Trump.
On the other hand, it could just be signalling from Kyiv – an attempt to show the White House how willing they are to reach a settlement, while also trying to show up Vladimir Putin.
At the moment, there’s no response from Moscow, so it’s unclear if the Russians have agreed to the trilateral meeting.
Vladimir Putin doesn’t like to be bullied, though. He never responds to others’ demands. Everything is on his terms. So don’t expect any confirmation or otherwise from the Kremlin until after his meeting with Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner later tonight.
Pulling out of the meeting at the 11th hour wouldn’t look good, though, especially after the US side has hyped it. So I expect the Russians will show up in Abu Dhabi, but it might not be their top team.
The Ukrainian leader appeared to suggest the trilateral meeting was an idea from Washington that was sprung upon him at the last moment.
“I hope that the Emirates know about it. Yes. Sometimes we have such surprises from our American side,” Zelenskyy said.
Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner were photographed meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday night ahead of the trilateral meeting.
Zelenskyy left Davos saying his country had clinched agreements on a new air defence package during meetings at the World Economic Forum.
He also claimed that Ukraine had managed to stop the size of the Russian army from increasing, saying that Russia was suffering losses of 45,000 troops a month.
