KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in comments published on Wednesday that an expected meeting between Russian, US and Chinese leaders could offer a platform to redistribute influence, similar to what happened after World War II. "We really don't want this to turn into 'Yalta 2, 3, 4', with a redistribution of influence," he said, referring to the 1945 summit of Soviet, US and British leaders on dividing up the post-World War II map.
The Kremlin has indicated that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US and Chinese counterparts, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit next month is under preparation. "What China, Russia, and the United States might discuss has not yet been clearly defined today," Zelensky said in comments to journalists.
Russia has for years been seeking a comprehensive agreement with Washington on Europe's security architecture, and in particular an end to Nato's expansion near Russia's borders. It casts its full-scale attack on Ukraine as countering a threat posed by NATO -- a position widely rejected in Kyiv and the West, which says the attack is an imperialistic land-grab by Putin. "Russia wants this meeting more than anyone," Zelensky said, warning against handing Moscow "another major diplomatic advantage".
His comments came as Russia and Ukraine are due to meet next month with US envoys in the United Arab Emirates in a bid to revive talks towards ending Europe's worst conflict since World War II. No date has yet been set for the Abu Dhabi meeting, but Zelensky said Ukraine wanted it to take place before the potential three-way talks between the Russian, US and Chinese leaders.
Zelensky also urged the United States to increase its supplies of Patriot air defence missiles, crucial to intercepting Russian attacks. Ukraine had been receiving 12 a month from the United States this year, but has "to shoot down 150 ballistic missiles a month," Zelensky said. Kyiv is also seeking a joint agreement to halt attacks on energy infrastructure ahead of winter and a maritime ceasefire to help safeguard its grain exports. But Russia has rejected the idea of partial pauses in fighting before a final peace agreement has been reached.
A US-brokered local ceasefire in southern Ukraine was holding for a second day, both sides said on Wednesday, as hopes grew that vital food and medicine would be able to reach stranded residents. Locals in the city of Oleshky, under Russian occupation in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, have faced food, water and medicine shortages for months, caught in the crossfire between both sides. Some of the estimated 2,000 still there had resorted to hunting and eating pigeons, former residents who are still in touch with those in the city said.
The human rights ombudsmen of both Russia and Ukraine said Wednesday that the truce was still holding. "30 hours of the ceasefire in Oleshky have passed without a single incident," said Ukraine's Dmytro Lubinets. "No incidents have been recorded in the 30 hours of the ceasefire in Oleshky," Russia's Yana Lantratova said in a similarly worded statement.
The planned truce was announced by US First Lady Melania Trump after months of mounting international concern over the fate of residents in the city. It remains unclear how many of citizens will choose to leave, or what route they will have to take. Crossing the frontline — marked by the Dnipro river — is all but impossible, and Russian-installed officials have indicated they could have to travel through Russian-occupied Crimea.
Russian officials said most of those who wanted to flee had already done so.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky would be set up "very soon." The announcement came as Trump's administration ramps up diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its fifth year. "There'll be a meeting set up very soon and I think a lot of progress could be made," Trump told reporters. Zelensky said on Sunday that a trilateral meeting between Kyiv, Washington and Moscow would take place in November, aiming to restart stalled peace talks.
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