Kiev Believes US May Play Key Role In Helping Ukraine Regain Control Over Territories - UrduPoint

The United States may play a key role in ending the conflict in Donbas and helping Kiev regain control over the lost territories, Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, said on Saturday.

Oleksii Reznikov, the Ukrainian minister for the reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories, has said that Kiev is interested in creating additional alliances to end the conflict in Donbas and called for inviting the US and Poland to peace negotiations.

"The US, as a strategic partner of Ukraine, can play a key role in ending the war in Donbas and returning Ukrainian territories," Yermak said, as quoted by the presidential office in a press release.

When asked about the potential expansion of the Normandy Four (France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine) talks on conflict settlement to include the US, the presidential spokesman said that it is up to the Normandy Four countries to decide.

The spokesman also said that the Ukrainian leadership is in touch with the US administration and plans to further strengthen cooperation.

In January, Yermak said that Kiev-Washington relations may "reach a new level" under the administration of US President Joe Biden who knows Ukraine "very well."

The conflict in Ukraine began in 2014, when the Ukrainian army launched an offensive against the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, referred to together as Donbas, after they proclaimed independence from Kiev. Their decision came in response to what they considered a coup in Kiev that toppled the old government in February of that year. The Normandy Four talks have lead to adopting agreements aimed at halting the war in Donbas and reaching a long-term political settlement of the conflict.