Hello and welcome to NewsHour on the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton, coming to you live from our studio in London.

Well, we start the program with a key question. After almost three years of fighting, could the conflict in Ukraine come to a hasty end, perhaps, as soon as next year?

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has said he thinks so,

now that Donald Trump is set to enter the White House.

In an interview that might signal a change in Kiev's decision-making,

Ukraine's leader says his country must do all it can to end the war

with Russia next year through diplomacy. Speaking on Ukrainian radio, he said Keeves should only

start negotiations with Moscow from a position of strength and with the United States, under Donald

Trump, at its side, and treating Russia as the aggressor. Mr. Zelensky said Mr. Trump's

presence would hasten the end of the conflict. We are a great nation and we have to prove it.

Therefore, I believe that the war will end. There is no exact date, but for sure, I emphasise once again,

with the policy of this team that will now lead the White House, the war will end faster.

This is their approach, this is their promise to their society, and it is also very important

for them, not only for the sake of Ukraine.

Mr Zelensky also criticised Germany's Chancellor Olaf Schultz

for a call Mr. Schultz made to the Russian President Vladimir Putin,

saying it opened a Pandora's box.

He feared it would lead to calls between Mr. Putin and other leaders.

I think Putin doesn't want peace at all.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't want to sit down with any of the leaders at the same table,

because for him, this is the destruction of the political isolation that has been built up since the beginning of the war.

Sitting down to talk, not reaching an agreement, I would say, is to Putin's advantage.

...