ROME (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the pope near Rome on Tuesday as he continued to rally European support for Ukraine while resisting U.S. pressure for a painful compromise with Russia.
Answering reporters’ questions in a WhatsApp chat, Zelenskyy reaffimed his firm refusal to cede any territory, saying that “we clearly don’t want to give up anything,” even as “the Americans are looking for a compromise today, I will be honest.”
“Undoubtedly, Russia insists for us to give up territories,” he said in the message late Monday. ”According to the law we don’t have such right. According to Ukraine’s law, our constitution, international law, and to be frank, we don’t have a moral right either.”
The Ukrainian president met early Tuesday with Pope Leo XIV at Castel Gandolfo, a papal residence outside Rome, and is to have talks with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni later. The Vatican said that Leo “reiterated the need for the continuation of dialogue and expressed his urgent desire that the current diplomatic initiatives bring about a just and lasting peace.”
The Holy See has tried to remain neutral in the war while offering solidarity and assistance to what it calls the “martyred” people of Ukraine. Leo has met now three times with Zelenskyy and has spoken by telephone at least once with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The American pope has called for a ceasefire and urged Russia in particular to make gestures to promote peace.
On Monday, Zelenskyy held talks in London with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to strengthen Ukraine’s hand amid mounting impatience from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Facing pressure from Trump
U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators completed three days of talks on Saturday aimed at trying to narrow differences on the U.S. administration’s peace proposal.
A major sticking point in the plan is the suggestion that Kyiv must cede control of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine to Russia, which illegally occupies most but not all of the territory. Ukraine and its European allies have firmly resisted the idea of handing over land.
In an exchange with reporters on Sunday night, Trump appeared frustrated with Zelenskyy, claiming the Ukrainian leader “hasn’t yet read the proposal.”
Trump has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Zelenskyy since winning a second term, insisting the war was a waste of U.S. taxpayers’ money. Trump has also repeatedly urged the Ukrainians to cede land to Russia to end the nearly four-year conflict.
Zelenskyy said Monday that Trump “certainly wants to end the war. … Surely, he has his own vision. We live here, from within we see details and nuances, we perceive everything much deeper, because this is our motherland.”
He said the current U.S. peace plan differs from earlier versions in that it now has 20 points, down from 28, after he said some “obvious anti-Ukrainian points were removed.”
Europeans back Ukraine
Starmer, Macron and Merz strongly backed Kyiv, with the U.K. leader saying Monday that the push for peace was at a “critical stage,” and stressed the need for “a just and lasting ceasefire.”
Merz, meanwhile, said he was “skeptical” about some details in documents released by the U.S. “We have to talk about it. That’s why we are here,” he said. “The coming days … could be a decisive time for all of us.”
European leaders are working to ensure that any ceasefire is backed by solid security guarantees both from Europe and the U.S. to deter Russia from attacking again. Trump has not given explicit guarantees in public.
Zelenskyy and his European allies have repeatedly accused Putin of slow-walking the talks to press ahead with the invasion as his forces are making slow buy steady gains while waves of missiles and drones are pummeling Ukrainian infrastructure.
Russia and Ukraine exchange aerial strikes
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia fired 110 drones of various types across the country last night. They said air defenses neutralized 84 drones, 24 more have struck their targets.
Several regions of Ukraine faced emergency blackouts Tuesday due to Russia’s prior attacks on energy infrastructure, according to Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo.
Ukraine, in its turn, continued its drone attacks on Russia.
Russian air defenses destroyed 121 Ukrainian drones overnight above various Russian regions and occupied Crimea, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday. In Chuvashia, a region about 900 kilometers (about 560 miles) northeast of the border with Ukraine, the attack damaged residential buildings and injured nine people, local governor Oleg Nikolayev said in an online statement.
Ukraine’s Security Service carried out a drone attack on an LPG terminal at the port of Temryuk in Russia’s Krasnodar region on Dec. 5, according to an official with knowledge of the operation who spoke to The Associated Press.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said the strike sparked a large fire at the facility. More than 20 LPG storage tanks were set ablaze and burned for more than three days, he said. The attack also damaged railway tank cars, an intermediate refueling tank, and a loading and unloading rack.
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Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.
