Zelenskyy Walks Diplomatic Tightrope Amidst New Attempts By Washington To Resolve Ukraine War

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cautiously signalled that Kyiv was optimistic about the prospect of the Democrats controlling Congress for the remainder of the presidency of Donald Trump in an interview on Friday.

"I heard from ... [the] Democratic party that they stay on our side, they don't try to balance between us and Russia, they're not afraid to say Russia is [the] aggressor, they don't want to give our land to Putin. I think that, based on such things, of course we [can] count on even more support [from the U.S. in future]," the Ukrainian leader told CNN.

Following the Democratic landslide in the midterm elections, which saw the party of opposition flip the House and Senate blue, Reuters reported that "beefing up assistance for Ukraine will be a top priority after the new Congress."

Nevertheless, Zelenskyy largely avoided directly criticizing the president, emphasizing that Ukraine valued "bipartisan support" from Republicans and Democrats and was "thankful" to all branches of the U.S. government for any support they had shown the eastern European state.

However, the Ukrainian politician reacted more skeptically to the White House's announcement of an imminent "agreement" regarding the future "security infrastructure" of Europe and Russia.

On Thursday, Trump confirmed that he had met Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev and told reporters to expect a "big agreement" that would "involve more than Ukraine" and "might involve all of Europe."

U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Jared Kushner expanded on the president's statements, writing on X that "President Trump today advanced an important discussion with several European leaders about the need for a broader European security architecture that can help establish the conditions for lasting peace [with Russia]."

The new "architecture" would be underpinned by "permanent security consultations, reliable crisis communications, greater military transparency, reciprocal measures to reduce escalation risks, and an enduring framework for long-term European security and stability."

"Any arrangements must fully respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independent decision-making of every nation," Kushner pledged.

Zelenskyy said that he had been informed of this proposal, but warned that a Russia-backed "new security infrastructure" could be "dangerous" for both Ukraine and the EU.

Instead, the Ukrainian leader stressed that an end to the Russia-Ukraine war and the establishment of security guarantees for Ukraine should come before wider agreements were made about the future security relationship between Europe, or the EU, and Russia.

Zelenskyy also cautioned that the future EU-Russia security framework should not be a "Yalta II," referring to the 1945 Yalta Conference of the Second World War which saw France, the UK, the U.S. and the Soviet Union agree to Germany's postwar division into four zones of occupation.

"We don't want to be divided by Russia," Zelenskyy asserted.