The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that United States is trying to “please” Russia.
Zelensky stated this as Russia and US meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss peace talks today.
According to Zelensky, Europe could become militarily weak if Russia is allowed to have its way in the talks that begin today in Saudi Arabia.
A High powered delegation from Russia and the USA arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday and Zelenskyy is not pleased with conciliatory comments towards Russia by US officials.
Recall that the Ukrainian leader made it clear on Monday his country would not accept the outcome of any peace talk deal reached without Ukraine and the UK’s involvement.
“The US is now saying things that are very favourable to Putin… because they want to please him.
“They want to meet quickly and have a quick win. But what they want — ‘just a ceasefire’ — is not a win,” Zelensky said, according to a translation provided by broadcaster ARD of an interview recorded Saturday in Munich.
During his presidential campaign, Trump had vowed to end the war between Russia and Ukraine within the shortest given time after his swearing-in.
Now as the US President, Donald Trump announced last week that he had a direct conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on a process to quickly end the war in Ukraine.
US Defence Chief, Pete Hegseth also appeared to rule out Ukraine joining NATO or retaking the territory lost since 2014.
On the contours of any future deal, Zelensky said “we will not sign just anything in order to be applauded” and stressed that “the fate of our state for generations to come” was at stake.
He rejected the idea of ceding Ukrainian territory that Russia has seized, saying: “We will reclaim it all.”
European leaders held an emergency meeting in Paris on Monday to discuss ways to be self-dependent and also offer more help to Ukraine, kicking against the US approach to ending the war but yet highlighting the importance of NATO alliance sticking together.
The Ukrainian president warned that Europe was in a weak position if it could not rely on the US security umbrella.
While “readiness has increased” in recent years, “in terms of troop strength, the number of combat troops, the fleet, the air force, the drones… I honestly think that Europe is weak today”, he said.
Zelensky said Ukraine had grown more resilient over the past three years and that “Putin wouldn’t be able to occupy us the way he wanted to”.
Even so, he warned that “there will definitely not be a Ukrainian victory without US support”.
Zelensky said he and Trump had spoken about deploying foreign troops to police a future ceasefire.
“I told him the Americans should be a part of this, because otherwise we might lose our unity,” he said.
