Zelenskyy says Ukraine war must end in 2025 through diplomacy

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he hopes the war with Russia will end in 2025 through diplomatic means.

In a radio interview on Friday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine must do everything possible to end the war next year through talks rather than military force.

“We are at war, I don’t want to compare, but we are at war with a state that does not value its people, that has a lot of equipment, that does not care how many people die, that’s what is happening,” he said.

“And on our part, we have to do everything we can to ensure that this war ends next year, through diplomatic routes, to end it. And this, I think, is very important.”

In the same interview Zelenskyy claimed that Ukraine’s military has become one of the most powerful in the world.

In almost three years of war, Kyiv has received almost €120 billion of military aid, mostly from Western allies.

41% of that assistance is from the United States with Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands accounting for the top five donor countries.

But Zelenskyy said Ukraine had achieved breakthroughs in its own weapons production, including missiles, naval drones and electronic warfare systems.

“We are technologically the strongest in Europe, for sure. Because we have modern practices based on modern long warfare. That’s why we have drones, electronic warfare systems, long-range drones and counter-insurgency,” he said.

On Saturday, Zelenskyy said he was certain the war will “end sooner” once Donald Trump enters the White House in January.

Zelensky said he had a “constructive exchange” with the president-elect when they spoke on the phone after Trump’s election victory earlier this month.

Trump has long been critical of US military aid to Ukraine and questions have been raised about whether that support from Washington will continue when he becomes president.

The US is Ukraine’s biggest supplier of arms with the Kiel Institute for the World Economy reporting that by the end of June, Washington had delivered or committed to send military packages worth over $55 billion (€52 billion).

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly said he would end the Ukraine war “in a day” without going into specifics about how he intended to do it.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s interior ministry said in a statement on Saturday that one of the country’s drone units had destroyed a Russian BUK-M1 anti-aircraft missile system worth $10 million (€9.4 million).

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A video shared by Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko on Telegram showed the system being targeted in what he called “one of the hottest areas of the front” without specifying where the video had been shot.

The Soviet-era BUK-M1 surface-to-air missile systems have been used by both Ukrainians and Russians in the war and last year, Ukraine announced it had converted the system to be able to fire American missiles.

Japan concerned about North Korea-Russia relationship

Japan’s foreign minister was in Kyiv on Saturday to discuss North Korea’s deepening military alliance with Russia, including the deployment of thousands of troops to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Takeshi Iwaya met his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, to reaffirm Japan’s “strong support” for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and to discuss further sanctions against Moscow, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said.

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“The deepening military-technical cooperation between Russia and North Korea and Iran poses a direct threat not only to Europe but also to Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Not only is Russia receiving missiles and soldiers, but Moscow is strengthening Tehran and Pyongyang in return,” Takeshi said.

According to US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments, up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia as part of a major defence treaty between the countries.

And G7 leaders released a statement on Saturday affirming their support for Ukraine as the thousandth day of the war approaches.

“We stand in solidarity contributing to its fight for sovereignty, freedom, independence, territorial integrity and its reconstruction. We recognize, too, the impact of Russia’s aggression on vulnerable people across the world,” part of the joint statement read.

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