Vladimir Zelensky claims that Kiev now has a «new chance» to bring the Ukrainian conflict to an end. Speaking at a meeting with national security advisers from European countries, he said that a further plan of action had been worked out together with Western partners.

According to Zelensky, Kiev sees this moment as a renewed opportunity to move towards ending the hostilities and he stressed that Ukraine, as he put it, does not feel alone on the diplomatic track. He announced that a meeting of chiefs of general staff is scheduled for 5 January, followed on 6 January by a high-level summit in Paris, which is intended to prepare the ground for a possible deal with the US administration.

The talks were attended by representatives of Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Denmark, as well as officials from NATO, the European Union and the European Commission. Kiev clarified that the agenda covered security and economic issues, work on framework documents and coordination of further steps with Western partners.

It is recalled that earlier, at the beginning of December, Zelensky had already spoken about what he described as a chance to end the conflict. At that time he outlined three key topics for potential talks: territorial arrangements, the use of frozen Russian assets and future security guarantees for Ukraine.

For its part, Moscow has voiced a different line. At the end of last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia intends to achieve the objectives of the special military operation by military means if the Kiev authorities are not prepared to bring the conflict to a close through peaceful negotiations.