President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Ukraine would not accept any bilateral agreement on his fate reached by Moscow and Washington in his absence, and called on Europe to sit at the negotiation table at the end of the war .
“Today, it is important that not everything happens according to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s plan, in which he wants to do everything to make his bilateral negotiations [with the U.S.]”Zelenskyy told journalists.
The Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha echoes the president’s comments, in an interview with the Newspaper world in France on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to go to the other countries and start talks to end the war in Ukraine in what Trump called a “very productive” call. It is not difficult to know if the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will even have a role in peace talks.
European leaders also warned the United States against sealing a peace agreement in Ukraine with Russia behind their backs when they rushed to a table at the table after Donald Trump announced an interest in Start negotiations after confirming that he had spoken to Putin.
“We have to make sure that Ukraine is at the heart of this. There can be no negotiations without Ukraine being at the heart,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the journalist in London.
Wednesday, the president of the social media of the American president Trump and the subsequent comments sent shocks through the European capitals, which want a central role in the peace talks because any colony in Ukraine, struck by a Russian invasion Large scale three years ago, will have ramifications for their own security.
“It is clear that any agreement behind our back will not work. Any agreement will also need that Ukraine and Europe in part,” said Kaja Kallas, head of the European Union foreign policy, while the leaders met in Brussels.
“Why do we give them [Russia] Everything they want even before the negotiations started? “Said Kallas, speaking before a meeting of NATO defense ministers with their Ukrainian counterpart in Brussels.
“It is appeasement. It never worked.”
Orban an aberrant value among European leaders
The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said on Wednesday that he was not realistic for Ukraine to return to the borders before 2014 and that NATO membership for kyiv would not be part of A peace agreement. Russia seized and annexed the Crimea peninsula in Ukraine in 2014.
The German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius also said that he would have been better if Washington had not given what he called the concessions in Moscow even before the peace talks begin.
Pete Hegseth claims that the borders of NATO membership, before in 2014, are not realistic for Ukraine in any ceasefire negotiations and that Europe must exhaust more expenses for the Defense of Ukraine.
The Lithuanian Minister of Defense, Dovile Sakaline, said that Europe should not fall “under the illusion that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin will find the solution for all of us”.
Not all European leaders have been alarmed by Trump’s decision.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an ally of Trump who was also more friendly with Putin than most European leaders, congratulated the American president and criticized the declaration of ministers.
“You cannot ask for a seat at the negotiating table. You must win it!” He said on social networks.
European leaders say that one of the reasons for which they must be involved in the talks is that Washington clearly indicated that it expects that they provide security guarantees for any peace agreement, which could Note that European troops are deployed in Ukraine.
“There is no possibility of not being at the table, because we are very important in the actual implementation of these security guarantees,” said Dutch Minister Ruben Brekelmans.
Ukraine has tried to urgently forge links with the new Trump administration, offering a mineral agreement to win the American favor, while the Russian forces, already occupying a fifth of Ukraine, maintain the pressure of the battlefield .
“ Hoping the best ”: Kyiv residents react
In interviews with Reuters, kyiv residents reacted to the perspective of accelerated peace talks with a mixture of cautious consternation and hope.
“It really seems that they want to hand over Ukraine, because I see no advantage for our country of these negotiations or the rhetoric of Trump,” said Myroslava, resident of kyiv, Lesko, 23, holding near A sea of flags in the city center in honor of the fallen troops.
Some Ukrainians expressed their frustration that the United States under the previous administration Joe Biden, despite billions of military aid, had not done enough to switch the war in favor of kyiv.
“Trump is a volunteer,” said Hryhoriy Buhoyets, 60. “He can decide what he wants, and concerning Ukraine, I think he has plans.”
MAKSYM ZHORIN, deputy commander of the third assault brigade in the war, wrote on the Telegram application that he did not expect Ukraine to receive a quick NATO subscription anyway.
Olena Chiupika, 38, director of kyiv, said that Ukraine had already proven himself to obtain foreign support which had once seemed unrealistic, citing fighter planes F-16 supplied by the allies.
“I hope the best,” she said. “I would like, because the atmosphere is not great.”
