President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on April 8, press secretary of the head of state Serhiy Nykyforov has said.
“There will be a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tomorrow. I can’t say the time for security reasons, but somewhere during the day,” Nykyforov said on the air of a nationwide telethon.
Earlier, the chief representative of the international organization, Eric Mamer, announced the visit of head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen to Kyiv this week.
Together with Ursula von der Leyen, head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell will also visit Kyiv.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, suggested that he hold talks in Budapest with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky, European media reported.
“The answer was yes, but the Russian president says he has certain conditions,” Orban was quoted as saying by the media.
According to them, Orban said that he also invited French President Emmanuel Marcon and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Hungary for talks.
In turn, Bloomberg reported that, in addition, during the conversation, the Hungarian Prime Minister spoke in favor of a ceasefire in Ukraine.
According to Bloomberg, Orban also said that he did not refuse cooperation with Russia in the nuclear field.
In addition, according to Euronews, when asked whether Hungary would pay Russia for gas in rubles, Orban replied that “paying in rubles will not be a problem for us.” “If the Russians want to be paid in rubles, we will pay in rubles,” the Hungarian prime minister said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking on Tuesday via video link at the UN Security Council, said that this organization cannot effectively ensure peace.
Citing numerous facts proving Russia’s involvement in the mass death of citizens and the destruction of cities in Ukraine, Zelensky asked the question “Where is the peace that the UN was created to guarantee?”
“Obviously, the key peace institution, which should ensure that any aggressors are forced into peace, simply cannot work effectively,” Zelensky said.
“The world saw what the Russian military did in Bucha while they kept the city in occupation. The world has yet to see what they did in other occupied places and regions. The geography is different, but the cruelty is the same and responsibility must be inevitable,” the president said.
Ukraine will not be a “liberal” state in the near future, and security will become the number one priority, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Ukrainian journalists shown on Tuesday as part of the all-Ukrainian telethon.
“Ukraine will definitely not be the one we wanted from the very beginning. It’s impossible. Absolutely liberal, European – it will not be like that. It will definitely come from the fortress of every hut, every house, every person,” he said. “We will become a “greater Israel” with our own face. We will not be surprised if there are representatives of the Armed Forces or the National Guard in our cinemas, supermarkets, people with weapons will stand. I am sure that the issue of security will be number 1 for us in the next 10 years. I am sure of this,” Zelensky said, adding: “The state will be the way the Russian Federation made it.”
At the same time, he noted, such a state would be democratic. “An authoritarian state is impossible in Ukraine. An authoritarian state would lose to Russia. People know what they are fighting for. They come out and fight not for a portrait,” said the President of Ukraine.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the creation of a special justice mechanism in Ukraine to investigate the crimes of Russian occupiers.
“I have decided to create a special justice mechanism in Ukraine to investigate and prosecute every crime of the occupiers on the territory of our state. The essence of this mechanism is the joint work of national and international specialists: investigators, prosecutors and judges,” he said in a video message on Sunday.
According to him, “this mechanism will help Ukraine and the world to bring to justice persons who in any way participated in this terrible war against the Ukrainian people and in crimes against our people.”
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the National Police, the Security Service, intelligence and other structures, according to their competence, should direct all efforts to ensure that the mechanism works immediately,” he said.
Zelensky called on “all our citizens and friends of Ukraine in the world to join this work and help establish justice.”
“The world has already seen many war crimes. At different times. On different continents. But it is time to do everything possible to make the war crimes of the Russian military the last manifestation of such evil on earth. Everyone guilty of such crimes will be included in a special Book of Torturers, will be found and punished,” Zelensky said.
Presidents of Ukraine and Russia Vladimir Zelensky and Vladimir Putin “with a high degree of probability” will meet in Turkey, head of the Ukrainian delegation at the talks David Arakhamia said during a telethon on Ukrainian television on Saturday.
According to him, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “called both us and Vladimir Putin yesterday, and he seemed to confirm for his part that they were ready to organize a meeting in the near future.”
“Neither the date nor the place is known, but we believe that the place with a high degree of probability will be Istanbul or Ankara,” Arakhamia said.
