Zelenskyy meets Merkel, comments on conflict

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday said Kyiv is seeking a permanent cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, a prisoner exchange, open crossings at the line of contact and to ensure Red Cross access to the conflict zone.

Zelenskyy was speaking at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was visiting two days after she went to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Merkel advocated working to get a leaders' meeting between Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France on the situation in eastern Ukraine, the first since late 2019.

The fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels has killed more than 14,000 since 2014.

Germany and France have worked to help broker a peaceful settlement to the conflict, including an often-violated 2015 cease-fire agreement reached in Minsk, Belarus.

Zelenskyy supported the idea of a meeting, but urged Kyiv's Western partners to exert pressure on Russia in order to achieve progress in eastern Ukraine.

Merkel also talked up the merits of a U.S.-German deal last month to allow the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany without the imposition of U.S. sanctions on German entities.

Ukraine opposes the project, and Zelenskyy on Sunday called it Russia's geopolitical "weapon."

"I believe that this is a weapon and it is not correct not to see it as a weapon," he said.

Merkel said she viewed the German-U.S. agreement as a commitment by the German government to ward off President Zelenskyy's worry, namely energy being used as a weapon.

She said she takes the concern very seriously, and pointed to Germany's appointment of a negotiator to help secure an extension of an agreement for gas transit through Ukraine beyond 2024.

Zelenskyy, in turn, said Kyiv has initiated consultations with the European Parliament and the German government regarding the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

He added that on Monday, energy ministers from the United States, Germany and Ukraine will meet in Kyiv.