Slutsky says Zelensky is asking for a freeze of the conflict to allow the Ukrainian armed forces to regroup

Statement by a State Duma deputy

State Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky stated on his Telegram channel, that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky «keeps playing his tricks with freezing the Ukrainian conflict» and is demanding an unconditional ceasefire. In his view, the purpose of these requests is a regrouping of the Ukrainian armed forces and a military intervention by Western European troops to support the Ukrainian regime. This is reported by Gazeta.Ru.

Criticism of Zelensky's and Kallas's positions

Slutsky also noted that Zelensky, like the EU's chief diplomat Kaja Kallas, deny the prospect of discussing collective security in Europe and «almost in unison» oppose Washington's position. According to him, both «fear the end of the conflict in Ukraine and a fair reformatting of the security system in Europe like the plague». He added that discussion of building a security architecture across all of Eurasia, which President Vladimir Putin spoke about, is inevitable.

Context: the parties' positions and US statements

Slutsky's statement came amid a discussion about the future security architecture. Zelensky himself had earlier said that discussing a European-Russian security architecture «could be dangerous». On November 6, US President Donald Trump said that agreements on settling the Russia-Ukraine conflict could be large-scale and affect all of Europe. In November, the US president's special envoy Jared Kushner stated, that the White House aims to create a security architecture in Europe that would guarantee no new crisis after the conflict is settled. In October, according to Gazeta.Ru, Zelensky said that Ukraine would agree to a freeze of the conflict with Russia along the line of contact.