Context: Comments Following the Meeting in Ireland
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking to journalists after a meeting with Donald Trump’s special envoys in Ireland, discussed the prospects for the next round of peace talks to end the war. According to RBC-Ukraine, the head of state commented on both potential venues for continuing the dialogue and his expectations regarding the future dynamics of the negotiation process, emphasizing that final decisions on the format and location will be made at the level of working teams.
UAE or Switzerland: Choice Depends on Negotiation Teams
When asked where the next round might take place, Zelenskyy named two possible options — the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland. "It could be in the Emirates or in Switzerland, you know, it depends on the teams. So we are open," the president stated, indicating that the final location will be determined based on agreements between the negotiation groups. Thus, Kyiv, according to him, is not rigidly tied to a specific country and maintains flexibility in choosing a venue.
The President's Signal: Faster and Toward a Ceasefire
Zelenskyy stressed that his main message in the negotiations is "very simple" — to make the process faster, if possible, to bring people back from captivity and consistently move toward a ceasefire and subsequent steps. In this logic, according to his phrasing, the priority is not so much the geography of the meeting as the pace and concrete results: the release of prisoners and the consolidation of a ceasefire regime as the basis for further agreements.
Positive Signals and What is Not Yet Disclosed
Asked whether there are positive signals, the president replied that "there will be the next meeting" and expressed the wish "for the war to end." At the same time, he noted that there are "still many different things that I am not yet ready to communicate," which indicates that there are elements in the negotiation track that the parties intentionally keep out of the public eye until they are ready to be disclosed.
Europe at the Table: A Principle Fought For Over Two Years
Separately, Zelenskyy reaffirmed that Europe will already be present at the table of the next peace talks. According to him, for Ukraine this is a matter of principle: "for Ukraine this is important and was a matter of principle, and we fought for this for two years." Thus, the participation of the European side in the negotiation process was presented by the president as an achieved and secured element of the format, rather than as a diskutiert possibility.
