MUNICH (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his nation needs “security guarantees” earlier than any talks to finish the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
Zelenskyy made his remarks Friday throughout a gathering with U.S. Vice President JD Vance. The 2 met on the Munich Safety Convention.
Many observers, notably in Europe, are hoping Vance will shed at the least some gentle on U.S. President Donald Trump’s concepts for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows beneath.
MUNICH (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned he’ll solely agree to satisfy in-person with Russian chief Vladimir Putin after a typical plan is negotiated with U.S. President Trump.
Zelenskyy believes Trump is the important thing to ending the Russia-Ukraine battle, and mentioned the united statespresident gave him his phone quantity earlier than Friday’s opening of the Munich Safety Convention.
Trump upended years of steadfast U.S. help for Ukraine this week following a telephone name with Putin.
Zelenskyy spoke shortly earlier than going into a gathering with U.S. Vice President JD Vance.. Many observers, notably in Europe, hope Vance will shed at the least some gentle on Trump’s concepts for a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
In his personal remarks to the convention, Vance lectured European officers on free speech and unlawful migration on the continent, warning elected officers that they threat shedding public help in the event that they don’t rapidly change course.
“The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia. It’s not China. It’s not any other external actor,” Vance mentioned. “What I worry about is the threat from within — the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”
He warned European officers: “If you’re running in fear of your own voters there’s nothing America can do for you.”
Vance’s speech, and his passing point out of the 3-year-old conflict in Ukraine, got here at a time of intense concern and uncertainty over the Trump administration’s overseas coverage.
“In Washington, there is a new sheriff in town. And under Donald Trump’s leadership, we may disagree with your views, but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square,” Vance mentioned to tepid applause.
The vp additionally warned the European officers in opposition to unlawful migration, saying that the citizens didn’t vote to open “floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants” and referencing an assault Thursday in Munich the place the suspect is a 24-year-old Afghan who arrived in Germany as an asylum-seeker in 2016.
The violence left greater than 30 folks injured and seems to have had an Islamic extremist motive.
NATO protection spending
Earlier Friday, Vance met individually with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, NATO Secretary-Basic Mark Rutte, and British International Secretary David Lammy. He used the engagements to reiterate the Republican administration’s name for NATO members to spend extra on protection. At present, 23 of NATO’s 32 member nations are hitting the Western army alliance’s goal of spending 2% of the nation’s GDP on protection.
“We want to make sure that NATO is actually built for the future, and we think a big part of that is ensuring that NATO does a little bit more burden sharing in Europe, so the United States can focus on some of our challenges in East Asia,” Vance advised Rutte.
Rutte mentioned he agreed that Europe must step up. “We have to grow up in that sense and spend much more,” he mentioned.
Chernobyl drone strike
Hours earlier than Vance and Zelenskyy have been set to satisfy, a Russian drone with a high-explosive warhead hit the protecting confinement shell of the Chernobyl Nuclear Energy Plant within the Kyiv area, the Ukrainian president mentioned. Radiation ranges haven’t elevated, Zelenskyy and the U.N. atomic company mentioned.
Zelenskyy in Munich advised reporters that he thinks the Chernobyl drone strike is a “very clear greeting from Putin and Russian Federation to the security conference.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday denied Ukraine’s claims. And International Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova mentioned the Munich organizers haven’t invited Russia for a number of years.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was anticipated to hitch Vance and Zelenskyy. He was delayed when his Air Drive airplane needed to return to Washington after creating a mechanical downside en path to Munich. He took a distinct plane and was anticipated to reach in time for the assembly.
Trump, who upended years of steadfast U.S. help for Ukraine throughout his name with Putin on Wednesday, has been imprecise about his particular intentions — apart from suggesting {that a} deal will seemingly lead to Ukraine being pressured to cede territory that Russia has seized because it annexed Crimea in 2014.
“The Ukraine war has to end,” Trump advised reporters Thursday. “Young people are being killed at levels that nobody’s seen since World War II. And it’s a ridiculous war.”
Ukraine’s bid to hitch NATO
Trump’s musings have left Europeans in a quandary, questioning how — or even when — they will preserve the post-WWII safety that NATO afforded them or fill the hole within the billions of {dollars} of safety help that the Democratic Biden administration supplied to Ukraine since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Trump has been extremely skeptical of that assist and is predicted to chop or in any other case restrict it as negotiations get underway within the coming days.
Each Trump and U.S. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth this week undercut Ukraine’s hopes of turning into a part of NATO, which the alliance mentioned lower than a 12 months in the past was “irreversible,” or of getting again its territory captured by Russia, which at the moment occupies shut to twenty% together with Crimea.
“I don’t see any way that a country in Russia’s position could allow … them to join NATO,” Trump mentioned Thursday. “I don’t see that happening.”
Zelenskyy, in his personal remarks in the course of the convention, mentioned the USA, together with the Biden administration, by no means noticed Ukraine as a NATO member.
Potential sanctions in opposition to Russia
Vance, in an interview with the Wall Road Journal, mentioned that the U.S. would hit Moscow with sanctions and probably army motion if Putin gained’t comply with a peace cope with Ukraine that ensures Kyiv’s long-term independence.
The warning that army choices “remain on the table” was placing language from a Trump administration that’s repeatedly underscored a want to rapidly finish the conflict.
Zelenskyy gained’t settle for agreements made with out Ukraine
The U.S. reassurances could have considerably allayed Zelenskyy’s fears, though they won’t substitute any misplaced army or financial help that President Joe Biden’s administration had supplied.
The Ukrainian chief conceded Thursday that it was “not very pleasant” that Trump spoke first to Putin. However he mentioned the principle concern was to “not allow everything to go according to Putin’s plan.”
“We cannot accept it, as an independent country, any agreements (made) without us,” Zelenskyy mentioned as he visited a nuclear energy plant in western Ukraine.
European turning level
The observe Trump is taking additionally has rocked Europe, a lot as his dismissive feedback about France and Germany did throughout his first time period.
French Deputy International Minister Benjamin Haddad described Europe as being at a turning level, with the bottom shifting quickly beneath its toes, and mentioned Europe should wean itself off its reliance on the USA for its safety. He warned that handing a victory to Russia in Ukraine might have repercussions in Asia, too.
“I think we’re not sufficiently grasping the extent to which our world is changing. Both our competitors and our allies are busy accelerating,” Haddad advised broadcaster France Information on Thursday.