After meeting with US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not argue with his opinion that Ukraine and Russia "should stop where they are" and start negotiating, but he reminded the American president that Ukraine did not start the war and should not be the one to "stop".

Source : Zelenskyy at a press briefing following his meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House, as reported by European Pravda

Details : When asked about Trump's statement after the meeting, Zelenskyy said that "under the circumstances we have now", he agrees with Trump.

Quote : "I think we have to stop where we are now, and the president [of the United States] is right. We should stop where we are. It is important to stop where we are and then start talking [about ending the war]... But, between us, the issue is with Putin – because we did not begin this war."

Details : He reiterated that he is ready to meet with the Russian leader in any format for this purpose.

Zelenskyy also emphasised that Ukraine is in favour of first stopping the hostilities and only then starting talks on territorial or other aspects of a potential peace agreement.

He noted that this would be an "important first step" and that he "thinks the president [Trump] understands this".

Quote : "I know that Russia has a different position. They want to occupy everything [the entire territory of Ukraine]."

Background :

• On 17 October, Zelenskyy travelled to the White House at Donald Trump's invitation. This came after two consecutive telephone conversations between the two leaders, and the meeting was planned to discuss extremely sensitive issues. One of the key issues was expected to be the possibility of providing Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles.
• After the meeting, the media outlets learned that Trump had not agreed to provide the missiles and that the conversation had been quite tense. However, Zelenskyy noted that the issue is not completely closed, despite Trump's current position.
• After the meeting, the US president said that Ukraine and Russia "need to negotiate" an end to the war and reiterated that "the war would not have started if he had been president".

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