Ukraine’s president meets leaders at Munich Safety Convention amid a push to finish Russia-Ukraine warfare.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has known as for the US and Europe to band collectively to help Ukraine in its warfare in opposition to Russia.
Talking on Friday on the Munich Safety Convention, Zelenskyy additionally mentioned the US, together with former President Joe Biden’s administration, by no means noticed Ukraine as a NATO member.
Ukraine will want “safety ensures” earlier than any talks with Russia, he mentioned, as US President Donald Trump presses each international locations to discover a fast finish to the three-year warfare.
Shortly earlier than sitting down with US Vice President JD Vance, Zelenskyy mentioned he would solely agree to fulfill in individual with Russian President Vladimir Putin after a standard plan is negotiated with US President Donald Trump.
The roughly 40-minute assembly between Vance and Zelenskyy produced no main bulletins detailing the best way out of the deadliest warfare in Europe since World Battle II.
“We would like peace very a lot,” Zelenskyy mentioned. “However we want actual safety ensures.”
Vance, for his half, mentioned the Trump administration is dedicated to discovering a long-lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.
Earlier this week, Trump upended years of steadfast US help for Ukraine with a telephone name with Putin, after which Trump mentioned the 2 leaders would probably meet quickly to barter a peace deal.
In Munich on Friday, some world leaders – together with conservative get together chief Friedrich Merz, who’s seen because the probably subsequent chancellor of Germany – sided with the Trump administration.
“There was additionally settlement that the trail to a long-lasting peace can solely succeed within the closest coordination between America and Europe,” Merz mentioned on the sideline of the convention.
However there have been extra widespread issues amongst different leaders on the summit.
“There may be concern that there could also be a deal that Washington needs to do with Putin successfully excluding not simply the Europeans however the Ukrainians too,” Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays mentioned from Munich.
However there was a stern warning from Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian dissident Alexey Navalny, who died in a Russian penal colony: ”Even in the event you determined to barter with Putin, simply keep in mind he’ll lie.”
German Overseas Minister Annalena Baerbock additionally expressed issues in regards to the Trump administration’s proposal to reinstate Russia within the Group of Seven (G7) main economies.
“As G7 companions, we have now repeatedly made it clear over the past three years following this brutal Russian full-scale invasion: There could be no regular cooperation with Russia,” Baerbock mentioned.
Simply hours earlier than Vance and Zelenskyy met, a Russian drone armed with a warhead struck the protecting shell of the Chornobyl Nuclear Energy Plant within the Kyiv area, web site of the world’s worst nuclear accident in 1986.
Zelenskyy and the UN atomic company confirmed that radiation ranges remained unchanged.
Zelenskyy later informed reporters in Munich that the assault was a “very clear greeting from Putin and the Russian Federation to the safety convention”.
