Ukraine will not accept any peace deal proposed by the US and Russia without its direct involvement, President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned. His statement follows reports that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have pledged to begin talks to end the war.
“As an independent country, we cannot accept this,” Zelensky asserted.
Trump suggested a “good possibility” of ending the war after a phone conversation with Putin. He also stated that Ukraine joining NATO was “impractical” and that it was “unlikely” the country would regain its pre-invasion borders.
Trump indicated that Russian and American representatives would meet in Munich on Friday during a security conference.
“Russia will be there with our people,” Trump said. “Ukraine is also invited, by the way. I’m not sure exactly who will attend, but high-level officials from Russia, Ukraine, and the United States will be present.
“I’d love to have [Russia] back. I think it was a mistake to exclude them. This isn’t about liking or disliking Russia,” he added.
Russia, which is not officially participating in the annual forum, has not yet commented on Trump’s remarks.
However, Zelensky adviser Dmytro Lytvyn dismissed the possibility of “talks with Russians in Munich.”
Zelensky is set to meet Trump’s Vice President, JD Vance, in the German city on Friday.
After a private call with Trump on Wednesday, Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine could not accept “any agreements made without us.” He also stressed the need for European nations to be involved in negotiations, citing “security guarantees” as a top priority that could not be ensured without US support.
He reiterated that NATO membership would be the “most cost-effective” solution for Ukraine’s allies, though he did not provide specifics.
Additionally, Zelensky warned world leaders against taking Putin’s promises of peace at face value.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas 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.
Trump, who made the first publicly acknowledged White House call with Putin since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, said he would meet Putin in Saudi Arabia. without giving details.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday in the Oval Office, he said Putin wanted the war to end and he expected a ceasefire soon.
When asked if Ukraine was an equal member in the peace process, he said: “They have to make peace.”
His Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told a press conference at a Nato summit on Thursday that peace negotiations would be “had with both” Putin and Zelensky” and he described Trump as the “perfect dealmaker”.
Hegseth, who on Wednesday said it was “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine to return to pre-2014 border and downplayed the prospect of Ukraine joining Nato, appeared to row back on his remarks, saying “everything was on the table” and the conversations were being led by the president.
The defence secretary also suggested financial aid to Ukraine during negotiations could be on the table, as well as US troop numbers in Europe.
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 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.
