Amid Trump’s Bid For Trilateral Talks With Putin & Zelenskyy, Ukraine President Sets This Condition For Participation
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said the commitments must be credible enough to deter future Russian aggression and ensure Ukraine’s long-term stability.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is willing to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, but only after Kyiv’s allies finalise concrete security guarantees for Ukraine. Speaking to reporters in comments released on Thursday, Zelenskyy emphasised that such assurances must be in place to prevent any future Russian aggression once hostilities end.
“We want to have an understanding of the security guarantees architecture within seven to 10 days,” Zelenskyy said. “We need to understand which country will be ready to do what at each specific moment.”
A coalition led by Britain and France is currently working to establish a framework of military support for Ukraine. According to Zelenskyy, once those arrangements are outlined, a potential meeting between him and Putin could follow, though he insisted it must be held in a neutral European country and not in Moscow. He also dismissed the possibility of China participating in Ukraine’s security guarantees, citing Beijing’s alignment with Moscow.
Trump Pushes for Peace Talks
US President Donald Trump, who has sought to bring an end to Russia’s three-and-a-half-year-long invasion through dialogue, has encouraged a direct meeting between the two leaders once guarantees are set. Trump met Putin in Alaska last Friday and later hosted Zelenskyy and European leaders in Washington on Monday.
While Trump has attempted to move away from the West’s longstanding approach of isolating Putin, progress on securing a peace deal remains limited. Zelenskyy reiterated that any eventual settlement requires a direct meeting with Putin, ideally with Trump present as well.
Moscow Rejects Security Demands
Russia, however, dismissed Kyiv’s conditions as incompatible with its own stance. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Ukraine was “not interested in a sustainable, fair, long-term settlement”. He warned that any deployment of European troops in Ukraine would be “absolutely unacceptable”.
Moscow also accused Ukraine of pursuing guarantees that it sees as “completely incompatible” with Russian demands.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy disclosed that Ukraine had successfully test-fired a new long-range cruise missile, codenamed Flamingo, capable of striking targets up to 3,000 kilometres away. “The missile has undergone successful tests. It is currently our most successful missile,” he said, adding that mass production could start by February.
Russian Strikes Escalate
Zelenskyy’s remarks coincided with fresh Russian attacks. According to AFP, Moscow launched its heaviest barrage since mid-July, firing hundreds of drones and missiles overnight. The assault killed one person in Lviv and injured many others. In Kherson, shelling claimed another life and left six wounded, a local official reported.
AFP journalists in Kyiv described hearing explosions throughout the night. France strongly condemned the strikes, calling them evidence of Russia’s “lack of will to seriously engage in peace talks” and describing them as the “most massive attack in a month”.
Russia also claimed further territorial gains on Thursday, announcing the capture of the village of Oleksandro-Shultyne in Donetsk, less than eight kilometres from the fortified town of Kostiantynivka.
Zelenskyy warned that Russian forces were massing troops along the southern front in Zaporizhzhia, one of five regions Moscow claims as its own.
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