By Friederike Heine and Matthias Williams
BERLIN, Dec 14 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Sunday for a “dignified” peace and guarantees that Russia would not attack Ukraine again as he prepared to meet U.S. envoys and European allies in Berlin to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.
Under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to sign a peace deal that initially backed Moscow’s demands, Zelenskiy accused Russia of dragging out the war through deadly bombings of cities and Ukraine’s power and water supplies.
Although the exact make-up of the meetings on Sunday and Monday have not been made public, a U.S. official said Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were travelling to Germany for talks involving Ukrainians and Europeans.
The choice to send Witkoff, who has led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia on a U.S. peace proposal, appeared to be a signal that Washington saw a chance of progress nearly four years after Russia’s 2022 invasion.
“Ukraine needs peace on dignified terms, and we are ready to work as constructively as possible. The coming days will be filled with diplomacy. It is critically important that it delivers results,” Zelenskiy said on X.
One of Zelenskiy’s negotiators, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya, announced “a day of meetings ahead” and posted a picture of himself in Berlin, but gave no further details.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is hosting Zelenskiy and European leaders for a summit in the German capital on Monday, the latest in a series of public shows of support for the Ukrainian leader from allies across Europe.
‘CRITICAL MOMENT’
Britain, France and Germany have been working to refine the U.S. proposals, which, in a draft disclosed last month, called for Kyiv to cede more territory, abandon its ambition to join NATO and accept limits on its armed forces.
European allies have described this as a “critical moment” that could shape Ukraine’s future, and sought to shore up Kyiv’s finances by leveraging frozen Russian central bank assets to fund Kyiv’s military and civilian budget.
Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Witkoff and Kushner at a meeting earlier in December that the Kremlin praised as “constructive”, although no major breakthroughs were reached.
Zelenskiy said hundreds of thousands were still without power after Russian strikes on energy, heating and water supplies across swathes of Ukraine, posting pictures of burning and destroyed buildings.
“Russia is dragging out the war and seeks to inflict as much harm as possible on our people,” he said.
“In total, the Russians launched more than 1,500 attack drones, nearly 900 guided aerial bombs, and 46 missiles of various types against Ukraine this week,” he added.
(Reporting by Friederike Heine, Matthias Williams, Olena Harmash; writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Alexander Smith)
