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Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Moscow had hoped for divisions and a “spat” between G7 leaders and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the summit in Evian instead demonstrated their unity.
Yatsenyuk joined Euronews’s Special report on the G7 summit on Tuesday evening, saying “the optics of the G7 are much better than expected”.
He added that the real test of this unity was whether Ukraine, Europe and the US can bring Russia’s president Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table — whether he wants it or not.
“Have you heard what designated war criminal Putin talked to President Trump when he congratulated him with his birthday? He said that he’s ready to meet my president in Moscow,” Yatsenyuk said referring to the Kremlin’s standard answer for any talks proposal.
“It’s a clear sign that Putin is not eager to hold any kind of talks. And let me reiterate once again, it was a KGB special operation. He wasn’t doing any kind of real talks. It was the way how to drag our feet into never-ending talks.”
Ukraine has repeatedly offered to hold direct talks between Zelenskyy and Putin in a third country. In an open letter to the Russian president earlier this month Zelenskyy suggested Switzerland, Turkey or the Middle East as possible venues.
The Ukrainian president also said he had proposed holding direct talks with the Kremlin on the sidelines of the G7 summit, an offer that Moscow now claims it never received.
However, Yatsenyuk said he remains convinced that the US president can exert pressure on the Kremlin to engage in meaningful diplomacy and ultimately bring about an end to Russia’s war against Ukraine — or at least secure a ceasefire.
Despite Trump’s claims at the G7 on Tuesday that the war in Ukraine “has no impact on us other than we sell weapons,” Yatsentuk argued that “the majority of Americans believe that the US have to support Ukraine.”
He cited the upcoming midterm elections in the US as an important factor in the timeline, adding that Kyiv has a momentum now when Iran is no longer a primary focus for Washington.
“So what kind of cards we have? First, we have Europeans. The second one, we have strong military support. The third one, we have sanctions in place.”
But the most significant factor, he insisted, is whether Kyiv has Washington’s backing.
“Most important issue, whether we have President Trump as a ‘trump card,’ and I still try to find out whether President Trump will press like hell on war criminal Putin, because it’s in the interest of the United States to stop this war.”
Yatsenyuk insisted that Ukraine remains resilient on the battlefield. “We actually are defending our sovereign soil, and we even managed to claw back a number of Ukrainian territories,” he said, admitting that the European countries have “provided an overwhelming support to Ukraine.”