WARSAW: Peace talks on the war in Ukraine could possibly start this winter, Poland's Prime Minister said on Tuesday, as he outlined a series of planned meetings as Warsaw seeks to play a leading role in ending the conflict. Poland has been one of Kyiv's staunchest supporters since Russia's 2022 attack on Ukraine. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Warsaw would be heavily involved in any talks when it takes up the European Union's rotating presidency on January 1. "I will have a series of talks concerning primarily the situation beyond our eastern border," he told a government meeting. "As you can imagine, our delegation will be co-responsible for, among other things, what the political calendar will look like, perhaps what the situation will be like during the negotiations, which may, although there is still a question mark, start in the winter of this year."
Tusk said French President Emmanuel Macron would visit Warsaw on Thursday to give a rundown on talks with US president-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris last weekend. He said he was in constant contact with Warsaw's Scandinavian and Baltic allies, and that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer would visit Warsaw in the early days of Poland's EU presidency. "I really want Poland to be the country that will not only be present but will set the tone for these decisions that are to bring us security and secure Polish interests," Tusk said.
Zelensky made the case on Monday for a diplomatic resolution to the war, his latest comments suggesting Kyiv's growing openness to negotiations, but said he had told Trump and Macron that he did not believe Putin wants to end the war.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said on Tuesday that the Ukraine war would continue until the goals set by President Vladimir Putin were achieved by military action or by negotiation. Putin has demanded that Ukraine abandon its ambition to join Nato and withdraw fully from four regions of the country that Russia has claimed as its own - terms Kyiv has rejected as tantamount to surrender. "The special military operation will end when all the objectives set by the president and commander-in-chief have been achieved," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, using Moscow's term for the conflict. "These goals can be achieved as a result of the special military operation or a result of relevant negotiations." Peskov said no talks between Moscow and Kyiv were currently underway because "the Ukrainian side refuses any negotiations".
Russian missile attacks on Ukraine's northeastern region of Kharkiv injured 10 people and damaged an administrative building, its governor said on Tuesday. Governor Oleh Syniehubov said that Russian forces carried out two missile attacks on the town of Zlatopil. The first strike damaged non-residential buildings and cars, while the second one damaged an administrative building. — Reuters
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