European reps should be at meeting between Ukraine, Russia at highest level – Zelenskyy in talks with Macron
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy insists on the participation of representatives of European countries at the meeting with Russia at the highest level, which should be held by the end of August. He stated this during a conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday.
"I informed about the results of the third meeting with the Russian side in Istanbul. We managed to agree on a new exchange of prisoners. We are waiting for a response to our proposal to hold a meeting at the highest level by the end of August. Representatives of Europe must definitely be present at it," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram following the results of the conversation with his French counterpart.
During the conversation, the parties discussed Ukraine's main defense needs, primarily strengthening air defense and supplying additional missiles to the SAMP/T and Crotale systems.
"We talked a lot about financing the production of Ukrainian drones of all types. France is ready to help us with this, we will work together. We also discussed the training of Ukrainian pilots on the Mirages," Zelenskyy said.
The parties also discussed the work of Ukraine's anti-corruption infrastructure, which, according to the Ukrainian president, is "fully functioning." "The presidential bill guarantees the independence and effectiveness of anti-corruption bodies and prevents Russian influence on them," the head of state emphasized.
"We discussed our European integration path in detail. We agreed to work on finding solutions that will allow us to open the first negotiation cluster in the near future. It is important that Ukraine and Moldova continue to move synchronously," Zelenskyy noted.
As reported, on Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced the achievement of an "agreement in principle" to organize a summit of the leaders of Ukraine and the Russian Federation in Turkey. Speaking on the Turkish NTV channel about the last Ukrainian-Russian meeting in Istanbul, Fidan noted: "During the meeting, the conditions under which and how the leaders should come together were discussed. An agreement in principle was reached to organize a summit of the leaders in Turkey."