Zelensky accuses US of unwillingness after Rubio calls Ukraine war a stalemate

Stalemate dispute

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a press conference during his visit to Lisbon that the war in Ukraine appears to be at a stalemate. In an interview with the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, he said he currently sees no prospects for a negotiated settlement. Volodymyr Zelensky rejected that assessment on Thursday at a press conference in Pryluky, about 130 kilometres east of Kyiv, held alongside British foreign minister Ed Miliband, saying Ukraine was "not in a diplomatic dead end". In an emotional speech, he asked where the truth and honesty lay and where the stalemate was, and then accused the United States of unwillingness.

That is what is called unwillingness!

Zelensky argued that Washington wanted economic relations with Russia while presenting itself as a mediator in a war that has lasted more than four years. He said:

You cannot negotiate with the Russians about future economic projects on the one hand and on the other claim we are in some kind of (...) diplomatic stalemate.

He added that President Donald Trump must increase sanctions pressure on Russia, and he called for the Russian economy to be blocked, Moscow silenced and weapons production halted through sanctions.

Starlink and pressure on Moscow

Zelensky renewed his demand that the satellite internet service Starlink be opened over Russia for the Ukrainian military. He said Washington would lose nothing by releasing it, and he warned of a comparable Chinese system that Russia could use. He argued that once Ukraine dominates the Russian sky with its weapons, Putin would sit down at the negotiating table, and he predicted that Russia would lose everything within "three months, two months". He put the request to Washington directly:

Give it to us, help us defend our airspace and gain the upper hand there. And then Putin will sit down at the negotiating table.

Casualties in the past two days

Zelensky said Russian attacks had killed 78 people and injured 225 on the Ukrainian side over the two preceding days. Pryluky, where he spoke, was the scene of a Russian attack on a residential building in which 22 people had recently been killed. The chart below shows the two counts Zelensky gave for the period.

Delegation to Washington

Zelensky said a Ukrainian delegation was on its way to the United States for two days of negotiations starting Friday, 9 October. According to local reports, the team includes David Arakhamia, leader of the faction of Zelensky's party, Rustem Umerov, head of the foreign intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov, head of the presidential office, and Serhiy Kyslytsya, Budanov's first deputy. The White House confirmed a meeting. A senior US government official said that special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would meet Ukrainian representatives 'tomorrow' to discuss a new, coordinated proposal covering all aspects of the conflict and aimed at ending the war. National security advisers from Germany, France and the United Kingdom, along with representatives of the EU and NATO, are to accompany the Ukrainian side.