Ukraine will not accept any peace deal agreed by the US and Russia without its involvement, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, after Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin pledged to begin negotiations to end the war.
Trump said there was a “good possibility” of ending the conflict after he and the Russian president held a “lengthy” phone call on Wednesday.
The US president also said he did not think it was “practical” for Ukraine to join Nato and it was “unlikely” it could return to its pre-2014 borders.
Zelensky said his country would not be shut out of negotiations. The Kremlin said Ukraine would “one way or another” take part in the talks.
Zelensky, who also spoke with Trump one-on-one on Wednesday, told reporters on Thursday that “as an independent country, we cannot accept it, any agreements (made) without us.”
He claimed that he told Trump that “security guarantees” were his top priority, something he does not see without US backing, and that “Europeans need to be at the negotiating table too.”
He claimed that without a united stance from Ukraine, Europe, and the US and Ukraine, negotiations could not start in a subsequent post on X about a call with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
“I emphasized that NATO membership would be the most cost-effective for partners, and that Ukraine must negotiate from a position of strength, with strong and dependable security guarantees,” he said
“I also warned world leaders against trusting Putin’s claims of readiness to end the war.”
Any attempt to force a settlement on Kyiv was also rejected by Ukraine’s European allies.
“Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks, and there can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine,” stated UK Defense Secretary John Healey.
A “dictated peace” was rejected by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and his defense minister referred to it as “regrettable.” The Kremlin was already receiving “concessions” from Washington.
The EU’s head of foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, accused Washington of “appeasement” toward Russia in a speech to reporters during NATO negotiations in Brussels.
“It plays to Russia’s court and is what they want, so we shouldn’t take anything off the table before the negotiations have even begun,” she stated.
Trump said he would meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia, marking the first time he has publicly acknowledged a White House call with Putin since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
He told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that Putin “wants it [the war] to end” and that a ceasefire would likely be reached shortly.
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“They have to make peace” was his response when asked if Ukraine was an equal participant in the peace process.
During a press conference at the NATO summit on Thursday, his defense secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that peace talks “will be had with both” Putin and Zelensky, calling Trump the “perfect dealmaker.”
Hegseth, who on Wednesday dismissed the idea of Ukraine joining NATO and said it was “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine to return to its pre-2014 border, seemed to take back his comments, claiming that “everything was on the table” and that the president was leading the talks.
The defense secretary added that US troop levels in Europe and financial assistance to Ukraine during negotiations might be discussed.
Following the overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president in 2014, Moscow annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and backed pro-Russian separatists in bloody fighting in eastern Ukraine.
The conflict burst into all-out war when Russia invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago.
Moscow’s attempts to take control of the capital Kyiv were thwarted, but Russian forces have taken around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory in the east and south, and have carried out air strikes across the country.
Ukraine has retaliated with artillery and drone strikes, as well as a ground offensive against Russia’s western Kursk region.
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