At a news conference, while speaking with reporters in Munich, Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that Kyiv wants security guarantees for 30 or 50 years, not 15, as proposed by the Trump administration.
The duration of those guarantees, he said, depends on the White House’s position.
He noted that Ukraine hopes to end the war this year. But Zelensky is pessimistic about upcoming talks in Switzerland due to changes in Russia’s delegation.
At the same time, he emphasized that Ukraine will still do everything it can to achieve peace.
“First and foremost, our task is to maintain contact with the American side. Our second task is to avoid a situation in which the only parties left at the table are us and Russia. Because, unfortunately, Europe is not very present in the talks so far... We are doing everything for this, and Europe wants it too, by the way... Russia does not really acknowledge them, but that is unfair. Security guarantees from Europe are important to us. And today, the money being spent on Ukraine is primarily coming from Europe. Let’s be honest. Our partners from Canada and Japan provide humanitarian assistance, but most of the money is coming from Europe. We need them,” Zelensky said.
He also said Ukraine maintains contacts with the American side across all channels. The president noted that in Munich he is meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and later will speak with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
“We will do everything so that no party to this negotiation process can accuse Ukraine of dragging its feet, of not supporting an end to the war, of something depending on us. We sometimes hear signals in the press that allegedly the end of the war depends on us and that we are not moving toward it... I believe we are doing everything to avoid mistakes. Playing with this will cost us dearly, diplomatically,” the President said.
In a February 13 interview with POLITICO, Zelensky reminded that Vladimir Putin continues to stall peace talks, despite the fact that the Kremlin leader does not have much time left, given his age.
