Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has again denied any swap deal with his US counterpart over US military assistance to his country, despite testimonies during the removal of Donald Trump. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has again denied any swap deal with his US counterpart over US military assistance to his country, despite testimonies during the removal of Donald Trump.
"I have never spoken to the US president in these terms: I give you this and you give me that," Zelensky said in an interview published Monday by German magazine Der Spiegel, Time, Le Monde and Gazeta Viborsa.
He added that he "does not understand at all" accusations of blackmail in this regard, in the framework of the removal of the US president and that "does not want to give the impression that we are beggars" in Ukraine.
The case began in a July 25 telephone call in which the Republican president was suspected of blackmailing Kiev on condition that US military aid be resumed by launching investigations in Ukraine into former US Vice President Joe Biden and his son, who works for a Ukrainian gas group.
The US ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, has explicitly confirmed that such a trade-off occurred in accordance with the president's "wishes."
On the other hand, the Ukrainian president in this interview tempered expectations before the forthcoming summit on Ukraine on December 9 in Paris, where he will meet for the first time bilaterally with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
He stressed that the cessation of conflict in eastern Ukraine, with pro-Russian separatists, can only be discussed after "preliminary stations."
He said the first involved "a prisoner exchange within reasonable deadlines," and then an effective ceasefire and withdrawal of all armed forces must be reached so that local elections can be contemplated in conflict-prone areas.
The Ukrainian President added: "If these three points are settled, then we will see if all the people want to end the war," he said: "As far as we are concerned, we certainly want it, but we will see whether Russia really wants it."
It will also be the first summit since 2016 with the so-called "Normandy" formula aimed at advancing the peace process in eastern Ukraine, where the war has killed more than 13,000 people.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been strained since pro-Westerners came to power in Kiev in 2014 and Russia annexed Crimea and a war with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
But progress has been made between Kiev and Moscow since Zelensky, who is more pro-dialogue than his predecessor, came to power in April.
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