Von der Leyen responds to Zelenskyy's screed against European leaders

The World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland came to a close on Friday. The focus of the annual event has been on the war in Ukraine and US President Donald Trump's ambitions to annex Greenland.

On Thursday night Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued harsh words of criticism against Europe, calling it a “fragmented kaleidoscope” of small powers rather than a unified force. He accused European leaders of lacking courage, acting slowly, and relying too heavily on the United States for defense. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen responded to Zelenskyy late last night after an emergency meeting of the European Council: “We have been supporting the heroic fight of the Ukrainian people for four years now. I think on our side actions speak louder than words, we are the largest supports of Ukraine in the last four years, more than 193 billion euros, and the European Council has just decided to add to this sum another 90 billion euros for the next two years.”

Meanwhile, the first joint meeting of Russian, Ukrainian and American delegations on ending the war is being held in the United Arab Emirates today and tomorrow. US President Donald Trump says he is confident that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy want to reach an agreement: “What's happened here is there were times when Putin didn't want to make a deal, times when Zelenskyy didn't want to make a deal, and it was like opposite times, now I think they both want to make a deal, but we'll find out.”

The US negotiating team of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were received by President Putin last night. And while Moscow has reiterated that Ukrainian troops must withdraw from the Donbas, the Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov, declined to discuss the details of the meeting between Putin, Witkoff and Kushner: “We believe that this would be inappropriate. However, the Russian position that Ukrainian units must withdraw from the Donbass is well known. This is a very important condition.”

Source: HRT