Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published on Monday that negotiations with the United States to find an end to Russia’s invasion of his country were “constructive,” but indicated that “questions” remained regarding the position of Europe that required more discussion.
Zelensky is expected to spend the day in London negotiating with European leaders, who have not played a significant role in the American-led peace process between Russia and Ukraine. President Donald Trump’s White House reportedly presented the two countries with a 28-point peace plan in late November that reports indicate has since been modified to 20 points, including Ukraine ceding territory lost to Ukraine and Russia making assurances it will not continue to invade and colonize its neighbor.
Zelensky’s remarks on Monday suggested that European leaders present an obstacle to Ukraine being able to trust and accept the White House deal.
“We are talking to the US — it is constructive work,” Zelensky told Bloomberg News. “But there are questions that concern Europe — and we cannot decide for Europe. We need to discuss with Europe Ukraine’s membership in the EU, which is also part of security guarantees.”
“After that, we will have our joint vision,” he continued. “And I am ready to fly to the US if the president is ready for such a meeting.”
He suggested that the major topic Ukraine needs to resolve with its allies, including the European states, is about security guarantees. The issue of security guarantees is a fraught one for Ukraine as Russia’s invasion of country, which began with the colonization of Crimea in 2014, is in large part the result of European states failing to uphold their commitments to offer security guarantees to Ukraine following the signing of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Kyiv agreed to give up its nuclear weapons in that agreement in exchange for “security guarantees” that the parties of the deal never lived up to.
“There is one question I — and all Ukrainians — want to get an answer to: if Russia again starts a war, what will our partners do,” Zelensky told Bloomberg.
The Ukrainian president also described resolving the situation in the Donbas region – the eastern region composed of Donetsk and Luhansk that Russia colonized in 2022 – as one of the larger unsolved issues in the negotiations.
“There are visions of the US, Russia and Ukraine — and we don’t have a unified view on Donbas,” he said.
Zelensky’s comments followed President Trump lamenting on Sunday night that he was “a little bit disappointed” in Zelensky because the Ukrainian president had allegedly not read the latest edition of the peace agreement draft.
“His people love it,” Trump said of the American-led peace deal draft, “But he hasn’t. Russia is fine with it.”
“You know, Russia … I guess would rather have the whole country when you think of it. But Russia is, I believe, fine with it, but I’m not sure Zelensky is fine with it. His people love it, but he hasn’t read it,” Trump claimed.
Rustem Umerov, a top Ukrainian government negotiator, appeared to respond to Trump’s comments on Monday, but did not refute the claim that Zelensky had not read the draft.
“The primary task of the Ukrainian team was to obtain from the American side complete information about their conversation in Moscow and all drafts of current proposals in order to discuss them in detail with the President of Ukraine,” Umerov wrote in a message on Twitter. “We are working as intensively as possible.”
Zelensky himself addressed the agreement again in a video posted to social media on Sunday, suggesting that he will pursue an agreement that requires Russia to in some way pay for the rampant destruction of Ukraine’s towns and cities throughout the invasion.
“Ukraine deserves a dignified peace, and whether there will be peace depends entirely on Russia – on our collective pressure on Russia and on the sound negotiating positions of the United States, Europe, and all our other partners,” Zelensky suggested. “Russia must be held accountable for what it is doing – for the daily strikes, for the constant terror against our people, and for the war itself.”
Zelensky had previously revealed on Saturday that he held a “long and substantive” conversation with Trump’s top negotiators on the peace process, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“We covered many aspects and went through key points that could ensure an end to the bloodshed and eliminate the threat of a new Russian full-scale invasion, as well as the risk of Russia failing to honour its promises, as has happened repeatedly in the past,” Zelensky explained.
“Ukraine is determined to keep working in good faith with the American side to genuinely achieve peace,” he added, thanking President Trump personally for his efforts.
Witkoff and Kushner returned last week from Moscow, where they engaged in discussions with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. Putin’s top spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that those conversations were “detailed” but has repeatedly refused to offer public details on what Russia is demanding in the conversations, instead suggesting on Monday that it was necessary for the Russian team to fully “understand” what Ukraine is asking for before responding to the latest round of talks.
While offering comments suggesting openness to a peace deal, Russia has dramatically expanded its violence against Ukrainian communities over the past weekend. Overnight Friday into Saturday, the Ukrainian air force said that Russia launched a barrage featuring over 653 drones and 51 missiles targeting both Kyiv and western Lviv. Many of the drones reportedly targeted Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure, potentially leaving Ukrainians without power during some of the coldest months of the year in that country.
The Russian news outlet Tass reported on Monday that Russia also escalated attacks on Ukrainians in Donetsk in the past 24 hours, “liberating” multiple communities there.
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