Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the United States should agree on a joint plan to stop Russia’s war before starting peace talks with the Kremlin.
After a 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said he expected to meet the Russian leader in Saudi Arabia for talks to end the war – sparking fears Kyiv would be frozen out.
On Thursday, Zelenskyy told reporters in Ukraine that it was “not very pleasant” that Trump had called Putin before speaking to him, adding that the US president had said he wanted to speak to both leaders together.
The Ukrainian leader, who is to meet US Vice President JD Vance in Munich on Friday, said he wanted to hammer out a “plan to stop Putin” with the US before any truce talks happen.
“We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” Zelenskyy added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Ukraine would participate “one way or another” in any talks to end the war but the separate US-Russian talks are on track, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
‘Any quick fix is a dirty deal’
At a NATO meeting in Brussels on Thursday, Ukraine’s defence minister assured his country’s backers that Kyiv would keep standing strong against Russia.
European officials have also taken a tough line in public towards Trump’s peace overture, saying any peace agreement would be impossible to implement unless they and the Ukrainians are included in negotiating it.
In a blunt address to reporters at the NATO talks, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas insisted that no deal “behind our backs” could work as she accused Washington of “appeasement” towards Russia.
“We shouldn’t take anything off the table before the negotiations have even started because it plays to Russia’s court and it is what they want,” she said. “Any quick fix is a dirty deal. It will simply not work.”
Antonio Costa, who heads the European Council representing the EU’s 27 nations, warned that “peace cannot be a simple ceasefire”.
“Russia must no longer be a threat to Ukraine, to Europe, to international security,” Costa said.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was also at the NATO meeting in Brussels, denied that Trump’s plan is a betrayal of Kyiv’s three-year war effort against Russia.
“There is no betrayal there. There is a recognition that the whole world and the United States is invested and interested in peace,” the Pentagon chief said.
“Make no mistake, President Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into ‘Uncle Sucker’,” he said and added that Europe should be primarily responsible for defence on the European continent.
Hegseth also rejected the idea that Washington’s new administration was undermining NATO or European security.
“NATO is a great alliance, the most successful defence alliance in history, but to endure for the future, our partners must do far more for Europe’s defence. We must make NATO great again,” he said.
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