The US has offered Ukraine “solid” security guarantees for 15 years with a possibility of an extension, but Kyiv is seeking a longer period, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday after meeting US President Donald Trump.
Zelenskiy held talks with Trump in Florida, where the US president said a deal to end almost four years of war with Russia was closer than ever.
The issue of territory and the future of Ukraine’s Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant were the remaining unresolved parts of a plan to end the war, Zelenskiy said.
Photo: Reuters
He added that he considered the presence of international troops in Ukraine a necessary part of the guarantees, which Russia has rejected in the past.
The Kremlin agreed with Trump’s assessment that talks were in their final stages, while repeating its maximalist demand for Kyiv to withdraw from eastern Ukraine.
Kyiv was hoping for a meeting with European and US officials in Ukraine in the “coming days” to work on documents to end the conflict, Zelenskiy said.
Any deal to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II “must be signed by Ukraine, Russia, the US and Europe,” he said.
Security guarantees were a priority for Kyiv.
“Without security guarantees, this war cannot be considered truly over. We cannot acknowledge that it has ended, because with such a neighbor there remains a risk of renewed aggression,” Zelenskiy said.
He had told Trump the 15-year offer was too short a period.
“I told him that we really want to consider the possibility of 30, 40, 50 years,” he added. “The president said he would think about it.”
Zelenskiy spoke as Russia continued its relentless attacks into the holiday season and pressed on with its maximalist demands in Ukraine.
He repeated that Kyiv was ready for “any” format of meetings — including with Russian President Vladimir Putin if necessary — but said he still did not think Putin wanted peace.
Zelenskiy accused Putin of misleading Trump.
“On the one hand, he tells the president of the United States that he wants to end the war and that this is his desire,” Zelenskiy said. “And on the other hand ... he strikes us with missiles [and] gives instructions to his generals about where to advance.”
Putin has for weeks said Moscow was intent on achieving its aims in Ukraine by force if diplomacy fails. Moscow wants to keep all the territory it occupies in Ukraine as well as be handed lands in eastern Ukraine still controlled by Kyiv.
The Kremlin yesterday again called for Ukraine to withdraw from unoccupied parts of Donbas, saying that “Ukraine is losing territory and will continue to do so.”
It said it expected Putin and Trump to speak by phone in the “very near future.”
Trump on Sunday acknowledged the issue of territories were unresolved between the warring countries, showing little sign of a breakthrough.
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