Ukraine will not accept any bilateral peace talks without Ukraine’s participation. In addition, it is important for Ukraine to have European partners at the negotiating table.
This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelensky during a working visit to the Khmelnytsky Nuclear Power Plant, commenting on his conversation with US President Donald Trump, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
“I articulate this very clearly to our partners. Any bilateral talks about Ukraine, I’m not talking about other topics, they are free to do so, we will not accept any bilateral talks about Ukraine without us,” Zelensky said.
He emphasized that meetings in the Ukraine-U.S. format should take place first, and only after that, after a plan to stop Putin has been developed, will it be fair to talk to the Russians.
Speaking about his conversation with Trump, Zelensky said it was “a really good almost hour-long conversation,” during which Trump told the Ukrainian president that he believed that “Putin wants peace and wants the war to end.” According to Zelensky, he told Trump that everyone wants to get Putin to end the war fairly for Ukraine, but he doesn’t really believe that it is easy to do.
The president also emphasized the importance of European participation in the negotiation process. I believe that there should be Europeans at the negotiating table, because we are part of Europe and will definitely be members of the European Union,” the President noted.
He recalled the substantial support of Ukraine during the war from the European partners. According to him, “today, 80% of the price of war is paid by Ukraine and Europe and 20% is the contribution of the United States of America.”
“The main thing today is that everything does not go according to Putin’s plan. He wants the talks to be bilateral – with the United States of America,” Zelensky said.
As reported by Ukrinform, on February 12, President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump had a telephone conversation during which the leaders of the two countries discussed the possibility of achieving peace, cooperation in technology and the preparation of a new agreement on security, economic and resource cooperation.
Source: Zelensky: Any bilateral talks on Ukraine without us are unacceptable
