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

23/4/2025 6:28

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.



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 Ukraine's membership in the NATO military alliance.



He said that Ukraine would not recognise Moscow's 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.