Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday described a Hungarian proposal for a Christmas ceasefire and prisoner exchange as “not serious” and “political PR” and reiterated calls for Western allies to provide the war-torn country with security guarantees and additional weapons.
Zelenskyy told reporters in Brussels after updating European Union leaders on the latest developments on the frontlines that he learnt about the Hungarian proposal “from mass media”.
Viktor Orbán announced last Friday during his weekly address to the nation that Hungary had put forward a proposal that “during Christmas, no one should die on the frontlines”, citing a precedent during World War I.
The Hungarian initiative also extended to a “large-scale prisoner exchange” Orbán said, claiming that “one party has accepted it while the other has apparently rejected it”.
But Zelenskyy, who did not talk to Orbán during his visit to Brussels, said that “with all the respect to Hungarian people, to Hungary, and with the treatment of Ukrainian refugees, but with all the respect, the prime minister doesn’t have a personal mandate to organise negotiations and his relationship with Putin is a bit too warm in order to put Putin in his place.”
He described the prisoner exchange as “looking like political PR”.
Ukraine has so far managed to return 3,500 of its nationals detained by Russian forces with Zelenskyy saying such returns represent “a very important challenge” to organise.
“We do exchange prisoners and what is suggested by the Hungarian side, I’m not sure, it just sounds a bit Christmassy,” he went on. “But it’s not really holiday mood with us.”
“You cannot discuss anything, you cannot solve anything without (the) participation of Ukraine because the war is taking place on our territory so I’m a bit skeptical about this initiative,” he also said.
On the issue of ceasefire, Ukraine will only enter into one if it has security guarantees, Zelenskyy said.
“When we’re talking about ceasefire, in any conflict, in any war, people know what will happen afterward, how it should end. You should have in mind what will happen tomorrow in order to create a ceasefire today, otherwise you’re just freezing the conflict,” he added.
“We want to finish the war, we want peace, we want stable peace and it goes without saying that Russia is not interested in that.”
The ultimate security guarantee would be NATO membership, Zelenskyy said, stressing that European guarantees alone “won’t be sufficient for Ukraine”.
He had earlier in the day called for the US and the EU to remain united in their support to the war-torn country and said that he hopes to have time to discuss “more details about the war” with Donald Trump, when he returns to the White House on 20 January.
“President Trump is a strong man and I want very much to have him on our side,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, was described as “crazy”.
“I think he’s crazy, I think so, really. I think he also thinks he is crazy,” Zelenskyy said. “He loves to kill, that’s very dangerous for everybody and I want very much Trump to help us and to finish this war.”
Zelenskyy also called for more air defence systems, in particular to protect nuclear plants and other energy infrastructure that Russia is deliberately targeting. He also listed fighter jets, missiles, ammunition and other weapons as desperately needed.
“We have unequipped brigades,” he told reporters.
