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Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday the US has offered Ukraine a 15-year security guarantee, but Kiev wants three times longer to deter future Russian aggression.
The day after his Florida summit with Donald Trump the Ukrainian president called for a guarantee lasting 50 years, which both leaders said was important, but which failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough.
Speaking over WhatsApp with reporters on his return to Europe on Monday, Zelensky said he had told the US president that 15 years would be too little time to stop Russia from escalating into a conflict that began with the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
“I also told them that we would like to look at the 30, 40 or 50 year horizon,” he said. A 20-point draft peace plan revealed by Kiev earlier this month mentioned a security guarantee that would “reflect” the NATO alliance’s Article 5 commitment to mutual defense.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the security guarantee proposal.
Russia on Monday accused Ukraine of carrying out a drone strike on President Vladimir Putin’s residence and said this “definite step in the policy of state terror” had prompted it to “reconsider its negotiating position” on the conflict. But Zelensky said the Russian claim was “a complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine.”
Speaking at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach on Sunday, Trump said he had an “excellent” discussion with Zelensky, which led to “a lot of progress” toward ending the war in Ukraine.
The US president said he had had a “good and very productive” telephone conversation with Putin for more than two hours before his meeting with Zelensky. White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt wrote on Twitter that Trump spoke with Putin for the second time on Monday.
“President Trump has had a positive conversation with President Putin regarding Ukraine,” he wrote.
European leaders have tried to take a positive stance on the Florida talks, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcoming “good progress” but adding that “paramount for this effort is to provide strong security guarantees from day one”.
The German government on Monday cast doubt on Putin’s commitment to the process following the massive attacks on Ukraine over Christmas.
A German government spokesman said, “It is now up to Russia to move forward towards a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.”
Spain’s Defense Minister Margarita Robles told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE that Europe should continue supporting Kiev. “A fair and lasting peace and its terms must be decided by Ukraine, it cannot be decided by Putin,” Robles said.
In his exchange with journalists, Zelensky said the issues of territory and who would manage the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which Russia had seized in the early stages of its full-scale invasion in 2022, were still at stake.
The Ukrainian leader had previously said he would be willing to withdraw “heavy forces” from a potential “demilitarized zone”, or “economic zone” in eastern Ukraine, provided Russian forces did the same. But he said on Monday there was “no detailed concept” about possible areas.
“It’s no secret that Russia wants this, in their imaginations they want us to not exist at all on the territory of their country,” Zelensky said. “But we have our own land, we have our own territorial integrity, we have our own state and we have our own interests. We will act in accordance with the interests of Ukraine.”
Additional reporting by Abigail Hauslohner, Laura Pittel and Carmen Muela
