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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized Europe’s response to the Greenland dispute with the U.S., saying that the continent needed to show more courage and describing it as a “fragmented kaleidoscope” of small and middle powers.
“Instead of taking the lead in defending freedom worldwide, especially when America’s focus shifts elsewhere, Europe looks lost trying to convince the U.S. president to change,” Zelenskyy said in a fiery speech at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on Thursday.
Zelenskyy called on Europe to confiscate Russian tankers transporting “oil that funds the war against Ukraine,” drawing a contrast to the U.S. in recent weeks controversially seizing ships carrying oil from Venezuela.
“Europe loves to discuss the future but avoids taking action today, action that defines what kind of future we will have,” he said. “Why can President [Donald] Trump stop tankers from the shadow fleet and seize oil, but Europe doesn’t?”
As he was winding down his speech, reports emerged that France’s Navy, working with intelligence provided by the United Kingdom, on Thursday intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea that travelled from Russia, in a mission targeting the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet.
The operation “was conducted in full compliance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” French President Emmanuel Macron posted on X.
“The activities of the shadow fleet contribute to financing [Russia’s] war of aggression against Ukraine,” he added.
French maritime authorities for the Mediterranean said the ship, the Grinch, is suspected of operating with a false flag. The French Navy is escorting the ship to port for more checks, it said in a statement.
Zelenskyy praised it as “exactly the kind of resolve needed” on social media well after his speech ended.
U.S. envoys to meet with Putin
In a short question-and-answer session after his speech, Zelenskyy said there will be two days of trilateral meetings starting Friday between Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
“Russians have to be ready for compromises because, you know, everybody has to be ready, not only Ukraine,” he said.
Zelenskyy on social media said he discussed the peace talks and air defence supplies at a “productive” meeting with Trump on the sidelines as the White House has led a push to end the nearly four-year war.
“Our previous meeting with President Trump helped strengthen the protection of our skies, and I hope that this time we will reinforce it further as well,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
Trump, also in Davos, praised “good” talks with Zelenskyy and said his message to Russian President Vladimir Putin was that the war in Ukraine has to end.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials have spent weeks in frenetic shuttle diplomacy as Kyiv faces pressure from Trump to secure peace, despite few signs Moscow wants to stop fighting.
Trump provided no further details on the substance of the nearly hour-long conversation. On Wednesday, Trump had said a deal was “reasonably close.”
“If both sides want to solve this, we’re going to get it solved,” U.S. envoy for Ukraine Steve Witkoff told an audience at WEF on Thursday morning. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress.”
Witkoff and fellow U.S. envoy Jared Kushner — Trump’s son-in-law — were set to meet later on Thursday for talks with Putin on the possible plan to end Europe’s deadliest war since the Second World War.
The Kremlin said that meeting will take place after 7 to 8 p.m. Moscow time.
Russia has been cool on the U.S.-led peace push. It is believed the major sticking point is Putin’s claim to all of Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk. Ukrainian forces still hold about 20 per cent, or 5,000 square kilometres of it, despite Russian advances on the battlefield.
Moscow wants Ukrainian forces to withdraw from Donetsk, something Kyiv refuses to do.
Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow said in 2022 it was annexing after referendums rejected by Kyiv and Western nations as a sham.
Most countries recognize Donetsk as part of Ukraine. Putin says Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk — which together form the Donbas region — are part of Russia’s “historical lands.”
Putin said late on Wednesday that they would discuss a settlement on Ukraine and the possibility of using frozen Russian assets for reconstruction of Moscow-occupied land, as well as Trump’s proposal for a “Board of Peace,” tasked with promoting peace around the world.
Critics of the proposal have said it would rival or undermine the United Nations.
Attacks zap power in dead of winter
Zelenskyy has been saddled with an energy crisis at home from Russian airstrikes that have left swathes of the capital and other regions without power and heating.
In fighting, Russian airstrikes hit several parts of Ukraine on Thursday.
Russia has used a new hypersonic missile to strike western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv’s NATO allies. It’s only the second time the missile has been used in the nearly four-year-old war. CBC’s Briar Stewart explains.
In the southern region of Odesa, a 17-year-old man was killed when a drone struck an apartment building, the regional governor said.
Eleven people were also wounded in the central city of Kryvyi Rih when a ballistic missile slammed into a residential building, officials said.
In Kyiv, nearly 3,000 high-rises across the city remained without heating on Thursday after Russia’s latest attack earlier this week.
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