Wrapping up his first month in office, President Volodymyr Zelensky visited France and Germany to meet with their leaders and talk peace in Ukraine’s east.
On June 17–18, during a short trip packed with meetings, Zelensky tried to show that he would continue the pro-Western foreign policy of the previous administration. It was his second foreign trip after a short visit to Brussels in early June.
Zelensky reaffirmed that he wanted to renew the Normandy contact group, a format of talks among Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France that seeks to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, a conflict that has killed 13,000 people and dismembered the nation.
He also vowed support for foreign investors doing business in Ukraine, and met with business groups in both countries.
But the peace talks remained at the top of the agenda.
“The main focus is bringing peace to Ukraine,” Zelensky said after the meeting with President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on June 17. “This is what I go to bed with every day and wake up with.”
Fitting in
Zelensky, transitioning from show business to the presidency, faces a challenge: he must overcome the perception of him as a wild card on the diplomatic scene.
His predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, got along well with Western leaders during his five years as president, despite losing his popularity at home. It doesn’t help Zelensky that he, unlike Poroshenko, isn’t fluent in English and has to use a translator.
Coming from 20 years of comedy work, Zelensky tried to lighten official meetings with humor. It didn’t always work. When a German reporter asked Chancellor Angela Merkel why she was trembling during the official ceremony to welcome Zelensky, he tried for a supportive joke.
“I was standing next to her and I can assure you she was safe,” he said, implying that he was there to protect the German chancellor. The comment drew few chuckles, perhaps lost in translation.
Domestically, the expectations for Zelensky’s diplomatic performance are somewhat influenced by his popular TV series, Servant of the People, where he played an idealistic Ukrainian president. In the show, his relationship with Westerners is bumpy. In the final season, which premiered in spring, Zelensky’s character comes into conflict with world leaders who are shown scheming to keep Ukraine weak and dependent.
At home, Zelensky had to explain more than once that the show is not how he envisions foreign policy. He seemed to succeed in his message.
Peace is priority
Zelensky’s choice of Germany and France for his first foreign visits after Brussels is in line with his priority of renewing the peace talks with Russia.
Peace talks have been held in two main formats: the Minsk format, which includes representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Normandy format, which includes representatives of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany.
But there has been no major progress in peace talks since 2015, when the sides reached the Minsk peace deal.
Russia has never adhered to the conditions of that agreement, which include withdrawal of Russia and its proxy forces from Ukraine. Sporadic shelling continues to this day, and several Ukrainian troops are killed in action weekly. The last meeting of presidents in the Normandy format also took place in 2015.
Now Zelensky wants to restart the talks and set the next meeting of the Normandy group for July.
Macron supports
“We want to stand again on the path of the Minsk format and bring peace to Ukraine. I’m ready to support you in this and in the dialogue with Russia,” Macron said on June 17.
During the trip, Zelensky highlighted Russia’s refusal to release 24 Ukrainian sailors it detained in the Black Sea in November as proof of its disregard for international law. In March, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled that the sailors must be released. But Russia ignored that ruling.
“I’m sure that Europe won’t feel safe while Russia is pretending that international law doesn’t exist,” Zelensky said at a joint press conference with Macron in Paris on June 17. “Nobody wants Ukraine to become an explosive device with Crimea and Donbas as the fuse.”
At the press conference with Macron, Zelensky caught a dangerous translation mistake.
Macron said that Zelensky told him he was ready to “make efforts toward separatist regions,” which got translated — for Zelensky and on Ukrainian TV — as the president being ready to “talk to separatists.”
This struck a sensitive chord. The Ukrainian government has been avoiding negotiating directly with the Russia-backed militants occupying eastern Ukraine, seeing such talks as an acquittal of Russia for its role in orchestrating the war.
Zelensky corrected Macron, saying he had no intention of talking to the Russian-backed insurgents. Macron had to specify that he only referred to civilians living in the occupied territories, not militants.
On the next day in Berlin, Merkel also welcomed the return to Minsk talks and the Normandy format.
“We are of the same opinion, that no progress has been achieved (within the Minsk talks),” said Merkel.
She reaffirmed that the sanctions that the European Union imposed on Russia in 2014 cannot be lifted until Crimea is returned to Ukraine. She also said there is no talk of increasing the sanctions at the moment.
The one point where Zelensky and Merkel were not in agreement was the construction of Nord Stream 2, the Baltic Sea gas pipeline that would allow Russia to bypass Ukraine and transit 110 cubic meters of natural gas (when combined with the Nord Stream 1 pipeline) to Germany directly. Germany approves of the project, even though Ukraine’s land-based gas pipelines could lose $3 billion yearly in transit fees from Russian gas.
On Nord Stream 2, Merkel said that she has been telling Russian President Vladimir Putin that “the question of gas transit through Ukraine is very important to her.” She said that Putin acknowledged her concerns.
Courting investors
After the diplomatic meetings, Zelensky met with representatives of the business community in France and Germany. His message to them was the same as his predecessor’s: come and invest, and we’ll take care of you.
“As the president, I will guarantee that there will be no pressure on you,” he said to a group of German investors on June 18 in Berlin.
He laid out his plan to deregulate the economy and lift the state’s pressure on business: digitalize the customs office, strip the tax office of its police functions, make sure that the State Security Service doesn’t touch businesses, and more. He also said Ukraine won’t default on its debt, despite his ex-business partner, oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, speaking in favor of it.
Additionally, he confirmed that his administration will continue cooperation with the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Andreas Lier, the president of the German-Ukrainian Chamber of Industry, was at the meeting with Zelensky in Berlin on June 18. He told the Kyiv Post his German colleagues appreciated the president’s visit.
“Overall: a very positive feedback from business leaders,” Lier said.
US, Canada next
Next in line for Zelensky is a trip to Canada and the United States.
U. S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker said on June 18 that Zelensky would come to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. within the next few weeks. Earlier, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U. S. Valery Chaly said that the meeting will most likely take place after the July 21 parliamentary election.
Zelensky is also set to visit the Ukraine Reform Conference in Toronto. It runs from July 2–4.
Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner and staff writer Vyacheslav Hnatyuk contributed to this story.
