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| Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have had a lengthy phone conversation. Picture: AFP |
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Trump, Putin to meet in Saudi for Ukraine peace talks
Joe Kelly, The Australian
Thursday, February 13th 2025
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine, with Mr Trump saying he could see a truce achieved in the “not to distant future.” However Mr Trump told reporters he didn’t think it was “practical” for Ukraine to have NATO membership, although he conceded the country “could get some land back” from Russia.
Mr Trump and Mr Putin earlier agreed to “immediately” begin talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, with the US President already assembling a negotiating team following a phone call with the Russian leader which he described as “lengthy and highly productive.” Mr Trump said that both leaders had also agreed to visit each other’s countries and had “reflected on the Great History of our Nations, and the fact that we fought so successfully together in World War II.”
Mr Trump has also spoken to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, and said a meeting would take place in Munich on Friday (local time).
Posting on his Truth Social media platform, the US President said he was asking his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and his Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to lead the negotiations. Mr Trump said he was confident the negotiations would be successful and revealed his discussions with Mr Putin covered the Ukraine conflict as well as “the Middle East, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar, and various other subjects.”
“We both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Mr Trump said. “President Putin even used my strong campaign motto of, “COMMON SENSE.” We both believe very strongly in it. We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations.”
He said his conversation with Mr Zelensky also “went very well” and that Mr Zelensky also “wants to make PEACE. We discussed a variety of topics having to do with the War, but mostly, the meeting that is being set up on Friday in Munich, where Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead the Delegation,” he said. “I am hopeful that the results of that meeting will be positive. It is time to stop this ridiculous War, where there has been massive, and totally unnecessary, DEATH and DESTRUCTION. God bless the people of Russia and Ukraine!”
He added: “Millions of people have died in a War that would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end. No more lives should be lost! I want to thank President Putin for his time and effort with respect to this call.”
The announcement comes after the Trump Administration secured the release of US teacher Marc Fogel who had been detained in Russia in August 2021 on charges of bringing medicinal marijuana into the country. The release was brokered by Mr Witkoff – a billionaire real estate executive and close friend of Mr Trump – who flew Mr Fogel out the country on his own plane after negotiating the deal in secret. Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he thanked Mr Putin for his “time and effort with respect to this call, and for the release, yesterday, of Marc Fogel, a wonderful man that I personally greeted last night at the White House. I believe this effort will lead to a successful conclusion, hopefully soon.”
Zelensky demands ‘just peace’
Shortly after speaking to Mr Trump, Mr Zelensky said the call was “very substantive” and that he and Trump had discussed “many nuances -- diplomatic, military and economic. We believe America’s strength is enough -- together with us, together with all our partners -- to push Russia and Putin to peace,” he said.
Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on television news that Mr Zelensky stressed to Mr Trump that the war must end “in a just peace”. He also said Ukraine’s “independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty” cannot be subject to any compromise. Mr Yermak said Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky had “agreed to immediately start the work of the teams” -- the high-level officials from each side who will try to hash out a deal. The teams will “begin a process of daily work” and Mr Zelensky and his officials will meet US officials involved at the Munich Security Conference in a day’s time, Mr Yermak said. He said the two sides are also working on organising a personal meeting between Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump that he expects “will take place very soon”.
Aftermath
Trump will ‘probably’ meet Putin before the end of the month
AFP
Wednesday Feb 19 2025
Donald Trump has said he will “probably” meet Vladimir Putin before the end of the month, saying he was more confident of a deal to end the Ukraine war after talks between US and Russian envoys in Saudi Arabia. But Mr Trump also backed demands for a Ukrainian presidential election, which has increased concerns a Russian-friendly president would be installed instead of Volodymyr Zelensky.
At the talks in Riyadh, which lasted more than four hours, Russia and the United States agreed to establish high level teams to negotiate a path to ending the war. Washington also noted European nations would have to have a seat at the negotiating table “at some point” after the first official talks since the invasion.
Amid fears that Washington would make serious concessions to Moscow, Mr Trump told reporters the demand for a Ukrainian presidential election “came from me”. Speaking from his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach the President said: “We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4 per cent approval rating, and where a country has been blown to smithereens … If Ukraine wants a seat at the table, wouldn’t the people have to say it has been a long time since they had an election? That’s not a Russian thing, that’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also.”
He said he was “much more confident” of a deal after the talks in Riyadh, adding: “They were very good. Russia wants to do something. They want to stop the savage barbarianism.” “I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going very well,” he added, chiding Ukraine for complaining it had been cut out of discussions. “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal,” Trump said.
Some European leaders fear Washington will make major concessions to Moscow and re-write the continent’s security arrangement.
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Click here for the full 50 minute session in the Oval Office on Friday (local time), with televised questions from the press on YouTube. Fairly "civilised" for 40 minutes at the start, "we're ready to sign the agreement, right after lunch" was said by Mr Trump, and while decrying the war, Mr Trump spoke of the "bravery" of Ukraine's soldiers, "very brave" Mr Zelensky interposed.
Then when invited to speak, "Thank you, thank you" were Mr Zelensky's initial comments. There followed much discussion with questions from the press right up until the 39th minute when JD Vance interposes with a strong "dig" at Joe Biden (juvenile, Tarzan-light actions). It followed his redirection of a comment from a reporter "... Poland. Poland was under Russian control for decades after the Second World War. When I was a kid, I looked at the United States not only as the most powerful country, richest country in the world, the country that has great music, great movies, great muscle cars, but also as a force for good. And now I’m talking with my friends in Poland, and they are worried that you align yourself too much with Putin. What’s your message for them..."
Click here for JD Vance's moment.
Click here for the full transcript
Subsequently, after an explosive 10 minute verbal fight that erupted, Donald Trump ordered Volodymyr Zelensky and his team to leave the White House telling the Ukraine President he was “not ready” for peace with Russia. In incredible scenes that played out before the world’s media, the US President accused the Ukrainian leader of being “disrespectful” and reminded him that “you don’t have the cards” in any peace negotiations.
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Mr Zelensky bit back, saying he was “not playing cards” as the two leaders began to speak over the top of one another in a complete breakdown of relations between the two nations. The Ukraine President left the White House shortly afterward without signing the crucial minerals deal the White House had promoted as key to a peace deal. Mr Trump posted on social media: “He can come back when he is ready for peace.”
The row will deal a huge blow to Mr Trump’s audacious plan to broker a peace settlement to end the war in Eastern Europe, with the White House cancelling a planned joint press conference scheduled for later in the day.
During the meeting, Mr Trump told the Ukrainian President that he was “in no position to dictate” how America should feel or respond to the war. Raising his voice, Mr Trump also warned Mr Zelensky that he was “gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War Three.”
Vice President JD Vance accused Mr Zelensky of being ungrateful for American support, asking him at one stage: “Have you said thank you once in this entire meeting?” At another point, Mr Trump said that it was “going to be a very hard thing to do business like this.” The US President later issued a statement saying that “much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure.”
In the statement. Mr Trump said that he had determined that President Zelensky was “not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE,” Mr Trump said. “He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
Zelensky said later that he was ready to pursue peace negotiations but said that Ukraine would need Western-backed security guarantees for any agreement to hold, assurances Trump has been reluctant to provide. “We are ready for peace, but we have to be in a strong position,” Zelensky said in an interview on Fox News.
Earlier, he sought to reassure Americans – and Trump – that he appreciated their support in a social media post. “Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit,” he wrote on X. “Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”
Fox News host Bret Baier asked three times whether Zelensky was prepared to apologise to the US President. He said: “I’m not hearing from you, Mr President, a thought that you owe the President an apology?” “No,” Zelensky responded. “I respect [the] president. And I respect American people. I’m not sure that we did something bad.” Zelensky said he was confident that his personal hostilities with Trump could be salvaged. “It’s the historical relations, strong relations, between our people,” he said
Tense exchange The Ukrainian leader responded by saying that Mr Putin had taken parts of Ukraine in 2014 and that “nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took. He killed people.” Mr Zelensky said that between 2014 and 2022 people had been dying along the conflict line in his nation and that Ukraine had found Mr Putin to be untrustworthy and did not honour the 2019 ceasefire agreement. He recalled how French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had reassured him about the December 2019 agreement – only for Russia to later break the deal.
“Me, like a new President, back in 2019 I signed with him (Putin) the deal. I signed with him (Putin), Macron and Merkel. We signed ceasefire,” he said. “We signed with him the gas contract. Yes. But, after that, he broke this ceasefire. He killed our people and he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners – but he didn’t do it.” Looking at Mr Vance, the Ukrainian President asked: “What kind of diplomacy JD are you speaking about? What do you mean?” The question ignited nearly ten minutes of fierce and heated debate which at times descended into a shouting match before the media cameras.
Mr Vance replied to the question: “I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country.” The Vice President also accused the Ukrainian leader of showing disrespect, declaring that he believed it was “disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office (and) try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the President for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
Mr Zelensky quickly responded, asking the Vice President whether he had ever been to Ukraine to witness the problems there. Mr Vance said he had “watched and seen the stories” and accused Mr Zelensky of coming to the Oval Office to “attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country.”
Mr Zelensky said that, even though there was a “nice ocean” separating Europe from America, the conflict in Ukraine would eventually be felt in the US as well – a remark that prompted an intervention from Mr Trump. “You don’t know that,” Mr Trump said. “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. Because you’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel.”
Mr Zelensky interjected several times to insist that America would “feel influence” to which Mr Trump replied that “you are right now not in a very good position. You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position.” The two leaders then began to speak over one another. Mr Trump, speaking more loudly, said that “you don’t have the cards right now.” Mr Zelensky replied: “I’m not playing cards.”
Mr Trump then accused the Ukrainian leader of gambling with millions of lives and World War Three and said: “What you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country – this country.” Mr Vance accused Mr Zelensky of interfering in the US election, saying that he went to Pennsylvania and “campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the President who is trying to save your country.”
Mr Zelensky declined. “Please,” he said. “You think that if you speak very loudly about the war you … “ At this point he was interrupted by Mr Trump who said the Vice President was “not speaking loudly. Your country is in big trouble,” he said. “You’re not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out ok because of us.”
The two leaders then again started speaking over one another, with Mr Trump railing at what he said was the $350bn spent on the war by Mr Biden – arguing that Ukraine would have lost the war in three weeks if not for American support. “It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this,” he said. Mr Vance said they should go and litigate their disagreements in private rather than “trying to fight it out in front of the American media when you’re wrong. We know that you’re wrong.”
Mr Trump then said it was “good for the American people to see what’s going on. I think it’s very important. That’s why I kept this going so long.” Speaking to Me Zelensky he said: “You have to be thankful. You don’t have the cards.” He added: “Then you tell us, ‘I don’t want a ceasefire.’ I don’t want a ceasefire.’ … Look, if you can get a ceasefire right now, I tell you, you take it so the bullets stop firing and your men stop getting killed.”
Mr Zelensky said he would ask the Ukrainian people about a ceasefire and “see what they think.”
After the argument subsided, Mr Trump went on to take questions from the assembled press. Asked what would happen if Russia went on to break a ceasefire agreement, Mr Trump replied: “What if a bomb drops on your head right now?” He then appeared to defend Mr Putin, saying that the Russian leader “went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch-hunt where they used him and Russia – Russia, Russia, Russia – you ever hear of that deal? You ever hear of that deal?” he asked. “It was a Democratic scam. And he (Putin) had to go through that. And he did go through that.”
Earlier, Mr Trump said that he had to align himself with both Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin to try and negotiate a deal to end the war. “You want me to say really terrible things about Putin and then say, ‘hi, Vladimir. How are we doing on the deal?’ That doesn’t work that way,” he said. “I’m not aligned with Putin. I’m not aligned with anybody. I’m aligned with the United States of America, and for the good of the world. I’m aligned with the world.”
‘Knife in the back’ The geopolitical upheaval which appears to have emerged in the increasingly angry and bitter Oval Office contretemps, has put pressure on European leaders to tread the finest of diplomatic lines. European leaders will want to support Ukraine, but without upsetting Mr Trump and his threats of fierce tariffs. Eighteen European leaders are to meet in London on Sunday to formulate a defensive plan to support Ukraine in any ceasefire deal, but in the coming hours, several phone calls will be flying between various allies to formulate positions and buy some time.
When cooler heads prevail, Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky may yet still sign a deal, a position Ms Sovsen supports. “(Trump) was very offensive towards our president, he didn’t deserve these accusations which were made against him and the country. It was unfair,” she told Channel 4 news. “We are very grateful to the Americans, but gratefulness doesn’t extend to accepting an agreement which means nothing to us. this is the reality, we are the victim of an attack and taken down: we don’t see Trump talking in the same way to Russia who are the aggressors here.” She added: “We have to keep heads calm and cool, we are all part of same western civilisation, liberal values and democracy which is everything Putin hates. We have to keep on talking, and the critical element is how the Europeans react.”
French president Emmanuel Macron said: “Russia is the aggressor, and Ukraine is the aggressed people. I think we were all right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago, and to continue to do so.”
The first European leader to react was Polish president Donald Tusk. He tweeted: “Dear @ZelenskyyUa dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone”.
In Britain one of the first politicians to respond was not the prime minister Keir Starmer, who was “love bombed” by Mr Trump on Friday after extending King Charles’ invitation for a state visit and who appeared to have negotiated a favourable trade deal based around new technologies and artificial intelligence. Instead Robert Jenrick, the Tory MP and Shadow Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice tweeted: “I’m sickened by that degrading spectacle. And to think the bust of Winston Churchill was in the same room as it unfolded. He would be turning in his grave if he saw that happen.”
Mr Jenrick said “Ukraine’s people, led by President Zelensky, have fought bravely to hold off Putin over the last three years with US and European support. Zelensky has shown sincere gratitude for the support offered by his partners. We salute him and the courageous Ukrainians as they fight for freedom against Russian imperialism.” He then added: “Countries can and do disagree, but the West must show a united front to our enemies.”
The tense exchange started when Mr Vance took aim at the previous administration for talking tough about the Russian regime of Vladimir Putin, but failing to prevent the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Mr Vance said the “path to peace and prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy. We tried the pathway of Joe Biden, of thumping our chest and pretending that the President of the United States’ words mattered more than the President of the United States’ actions.”
Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsen has called for calm while claiming the United States had “knifed” the country in the back. “This isn’t the worst we’ve faced — though, like any knife in the back, it stings the most when unexpected,” she tweeted immediately after the brutal verbal exchange in the White House. Ms Sovsen added: “But we know what we’re fighting for. And we know exactly who the real enemy is.”
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Donald Trump has said he is “open” to inviting Volodymyr Zelensky back to the White House as Kyiv agreed to implement a 30-day ceasefire with Russia and Washington announced an immediate lift on its pause on intelligence sharing and military support to Ukraine. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Mr Trump said: “Ukraine has agreed to (a ceasefire). “Hopefully President Putin will agree to that also.” He said there was a “very big difference” in the current situation compared with the day Mr Zelensky was last at the White House for the now infamous dressing down at the hands of the President and Vice-President two weeks ago.
Mr Trump said he might speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, while Moscow said it would not rule out “contact” with US officials in the “next few days”.
The ceasefire plan, which is contingent on Russian acceptance, was outlined in a statement issued by Ukraine and the US on Wednesday (AEDT). “Today we made an offer which the Ukrainians have accepted, which is to enter into a ceasefire and into immediate negotiations to end this conflict in a way that’s enduring and sustainable and accounts for their interests, their security, their ability to prosper as a nation,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “We will take this offer now to the Russians and we hope that they’ll say ‘yes,’ that they’ll say ‘yes’ to peace. The ball is now in their court,” he added.
Rubio and Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, were representing the US. The Tuesday meeting was the first high-level talks between US and Ukrainian officials since a combative Oval Office encounter in which President Trump accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of being unwilling to negotiate a peace settlement with Moscow. Following that White House session, Trump had cut off arms shipments and reduced the flow of intelligence to Kyiv. That move was followed by an accelerated Russian and North Korean campaign to roll back Ukrainian gains in Kursk, a portion of Russian territory seized by Kyiv’s forces last year.
Hours before the talks in Jeddah began, Ukraine launched the largest drone attack on Moscow of the war, targeting the Russian capital and other regions. Moscow authorities said the attack led to at least one death and injured 14 people.
Zelensky had insisted he was ready to pursue peace talks, but had said that Ukraine would need Western-backed security guarantees to ensure that a prospective deal holds, assurances that Trump had been reluctant to provide. And in recent days Ukrainian officials have suggested that an initial step toward peace could be a ceasefire on Russian and Ukrainian air and naval attacks.
US officials hadn’t said what specific steps the Ukrainians need to take for American military support to resume, but had suggested it would need to go beyond a ceasefire. “We’re not going to be sitting in a room drawing lines on a map, but just get a general sense of what concessions are in the realm of the possible for them and what they would need in return,” Rubio said before the ceasefire announcement. “And then find out what the Russian position is in that regard. And that’ll give us a pretty good assessment of how far apart we truly are.” Any potential settlement, Rubio had said, would entail concessions on both sides. “The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine, and obviously it will be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable time period to sort of force the Russians back all the way to where they were in 2014,” Rubio said. “So the only solution to this war is diplomacy and getting them to a table where that’s possible.” After the talks Mr Waltz said the question was now “how” not “if” the war would end.
After arriving in Jeddah, Rubio and Waltz met Monday night with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s day-to-day leader. Those talks centered on the turmoil in Syria, threats to international shipping from the Houthis in Yemen, and the hopes for a political solution in Gaza, which the Americans said couldn’t include a role for Hamas.
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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has agreed to a “partial ceasefire against energy” and said “lasting peace” was possible under Donald Trump’s leadership, after the two leaders had a one hour phone conversation early Thursday (AEDT). The US President hailed the phone call as “very good,” noting that they were “very much on track” in securing a peace deal.
The one hour phone discussion between the two men – markedly shorter than Mr Trump’s two hour long chat with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday – is the first direct conversation since the heated Oval Office exchange last month and came after both Russia and Ukraine accused one another of violating a temporary ceasefire brokered by the White House. Mr Trump posted on social media late Wednesday (local time) that “much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs”.
Mr Zelensky described the phone call as “frank,” posting on X: “One of the first steps towards fully ending the war could be ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure. I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it.”
Reading out a statement issued by Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state and the national security adviser Mike Waltz at the White House, Katherine Leavitt told reporters: “Technical teams will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss broadening the ceasefire to the Black Sea on the way to a full ceasefire. They agreed this could be the first step toward the full end of the war and ensuring security.” Mr Rubio and Mr Waltz also said Mr Trump had suggested to Mr Zelensky that the US take ownership of Ukraine’s power plants to ensure their security.
Mr Trump told Mr Zelensky the US could be “very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise,” the officials said. They added in their statement that “American ownership of those plants could be the best protection for that infrastructure.”
Russia and Ukraine also exchanged 372 soldiers in a prisoner swap on Wednesday.
The phone conversation between the leaders came a day after Mr Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin brokered a 30-day pause on attacks against energy infrastructure.
Speaking earlier on Wednesday, Mr Zelensky accused Russia of breaching terms of the partial ceasefire by launching a large scale attack, including two ballistic missiles on Sloviansk, and a drone attack on several hospitals in Sumy. “Even last night, when Putin allegedly said he had given the order to stop strikes on Ukrainian energy targets, 150 drones struck energy infrastructure and transport,” said Mr Zelensky, before his call with Mr Trump. “Putin’s words are very different from reality.”
He said Ukraine would prepare a list of energy and infrastructure facilities to be included in any such temporary ceasefire.
“We will prepare this list, if Russia don’t strike ours then we definitely won’t strike theirs,” Mr Zelensky said after a meeting in Helsinki with Finland president Alexander Stubb. Mr Zelensky added he was “grateful” to the US for restoring military intelligence and aid to his country. Mr Stubb confirmed unconditional Finnish support for Ukraine which included joint military efforts in drone manufacture and called for a European team, headed by the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy to be given “skin in the game” at any peace negotiations.
Russia, meanwhile, responded to Ukraine’s claims, saying it was Ukraine which was derailing the ceasefire by launching a deliberate attack on an oil depot in Kavkazskaya in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia overnight. “It is completely obvious that this is another specially prepared provocation by the Kyiv regime aimed at derailing peace initiatives of the US president,” the Russian defence ministry said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Mr Putin and Mr Trump “trust each other” and want to normalise US-Russia ties after more than three years of Moscow’s Ukraine offensive. “Presidents Putin and Trump understand each other well, trust each other and are intent to gradually move towards the normalisation of ties,” he said, adding that the pair’s phone call Tuesday lasted around two hours.
Mr Zelensky said Russia’s desire to have Ukraine’s regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea recognised as being Russian was “a red line”. “They are temporarily occupied, but this is temporary and they will not be Russian, ever,” he said.
Donald Trump has announced that the United States would soon sign a deal with Ukraine for access to its rare earth minerals. Hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rebuffed Mr Trump’s suggestion that the US take ownership of his country’s power plants, the US President returned to his previous demand that Ukraine compensate the United States for its support in resisting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In a White House address, Mr Trump said he had signed an order to “dramatically increase” US production of critical minerals and would “very shortly” sign a pact with Ukraine. “We’re also signing agreements in various locations to unlock rare earths and minerals and lots of other things all over the world, but in particular Ukraine,” he said. “One of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earths with Ukraine, which they have tremendous value in rare earths, and we appreciate that.”
Earlier on Friday (AEDT), Mr Zelensky had ruled that out. “We will not discuss it. We have 15 nuclear power units in operation today. This all belongs to the state,” he said. Mr Zelensky said the nuclear plants legally belonged to the Ukrainian people but that Kyiv was open to US investment once Ukraine got back control of the Zaporizhzhia plant, seized by Russian troops at the start of the war. “If they want to take it back from the Russians, if they want to modernise it, invest — this is a different question, this is an open question, we can talk about it,” Mr Zelensky added.
Mr Zelensky also urged European leaders to step up weapon supplies to Ukraine, as top military brass gathered in London to thrash out plans to police any peace deal. Europe is scrambling to weigh on the outcome as the US President forges ahead with Russia on efforts to end its war on Ukraine. Speaking by video call to an EU summit in Brussels, Mr Zelensky said Russia had continued striking Ukraine’s energy system despite Russian President Vladimir Putin agreeing a halt with Mr Trump. Over the last two days there has since been no let-up in strikes, and both countries reported a barrage of new drone strikes overnight, as questions remained about the exact details of any lasting peace deal.
In the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer addressed the closed-door meeting of military leaders at the Permanent Joint Headquarters north of London. He said plans for allied countries to safeguard a potential Ukraine ceasefire were “coming together” and that the talks were focused on turning the “political intention” of security guarantees for Ukraine into “reality”. Speaking ahead of the talks, Sir Keir also stressed that any agreement to end fighting in Ukraine would need to be “defended” to stop Russia from violating it. “If there’s a deal, it has to be defended, because there (have) been deals in the past that haven’t had security arrangements and Putin’s taken no notice of them,” he said.
Sir Keir has spearheaded efforts with French President Emmanuel Macron to form a so-called “coalition of the willing” to police any truce in Ukraine, and both say they are willing to put their own troops on the ground. Russia has said it will not accept the presence of any NATO troops in Ukraine but Washington has not yet indicated whether it would be willing to provide a security backstop.
Despite Mr Trump going cold on support for Ukraine, the United States is looking at helping Kyiv to acquire additional air defence systems to counter Russia’s ballistic missiles. “This is extremely important,” said the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who is pushing member states to meet a Ukrainian request for two million shells worth five billion euros ($8.62 billion), though no headway was made on the plan at Thursday’s summit.
According to a White House readout, Mr Zelensky on Wednesday asked Mr Trump for help in obtaining US-made “Patriot missile systems” to bolster its current stock provided by the United States, Germany and Romania. At the Kremlin, spokesman Dmitry Peskov questioned whether Europe, where governments are looking at steep increases in domestic defence spending, was committed to ending the fighting. “For the most part, the signals from Brussels and European capitals concern plans to militarise Europe,” he said.
Talks on ending attacks on energy facilities involving Ukrainian, Russian and US officials were due to resume on Monday in Saudi Arabia, Mr Zelensky and the Kremlin said separately.
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