Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said it was “not fair” to exclude European allies from Ukraine reconstruction talks, as efforts to settle the war with Russia went into full swing.
“The issue of money, restoration, in my opinion, I speak honestly, and we talked about it, undoubtedly, without the presence of European partners, it is not easy to accept. It is difficult because the money is in Europe, and I think this is not very fair,” he told a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
Zelensky is seeking to reinforce European support for Ukraine at a potentially pivotal moment in Kyiv’s battle against Russia as Washington pushes a plan to end the war.
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Macron on Monday said sanctions pressure on Russia’s energy sector in the coming weeks would be the “highest” since the beginning of the war.
“The level of pressure on the oil and gas companies and the oil and gas industry in Russia will be in the weeks to come at the highest since the beginning of the war, and I think this is a game changer,” Macron said, adding that “the level of pressure on the Russian economy will clearly increase”.
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More than three-and-a-half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour, an Agence France-Presse analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed the Russian army made its biggest advance in Ukraine for a year in November.