Zelensky Says He Will Enter Peace Talks on Precondition America Agrees Open-Ended Support for Ukraine

Ukraine will enter into peace talks with President Putin as long as the U.S. and Europe give “more security guarantees” not to “abandon” the country in future, its President says.

President Volodymyr Zelensky told an interviewer he would agree to sit down to “any form of discussion” with Russia as long as his international partners first guaranteed their long-term support to deter future Russian aggression. This would be essential to prevent the Ukraine war simply becoming a frozen conflict that Russia could re-start when convenient to Moscow in the future, as it had been between 2014-2022, he said.

Speaking to Britain’s ITV, Zelensky emphasised the importance of support from Ukraine’s underwriters, saying more than the country needing to not lose the nations that support it now, and that those backers need to come forward with new promises. “We really wish our Western partners had the strength to force Putin to end the war”, he said, while asserting the opportunity to end the way existed, particularly with the arrival of President Trump.

Asked outright whether he’d sir around the table with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Zelensky said he would, but on the precondition that his Western backers had already agreed to give him open-ended support. he said: “If I had an understanding that America and Europe won’t abandon us, and will support us and give us the guarantee of security I would be prepared for any form of discussion, yes.”

President Zelensky has previously, and even recently, rejected the utility of talks, asserting the war aims of Moscow and Kyiv are so different there could not be room for accommodation. Compromise positions previously suggested by some European diplomats — like Ukraine acknowledging Russian occupation of some land in return for an end to fighting — have been declined by Zelensky because a return to Ukraine’s UN-recognised 1991 borders are un-negotiable to him.

In September, Zelensky said of talks: “we know some in the world want to talk to Putin… but what could they possibly hear from them, that he’s upset because we are exercising our right to defend our people… This war can’t simply fade away, this war can’t be calmed by talk”. Just last week, Zelensky said given Putin is a “murderer and terrorist”, entering into talks with him at all would constitute a massive compromise in moral standards.

He has also been clear about what form future talks should take should they ever come. One area which is a particular matter of anxiety to Kyiv is that ultimately the real decision-making about the future of Ukraine will be contracted directly between Washington and Moscow, and that imposed on the country. President Zelensky has claimed this happened in the past to Ukraine’s cost, as in the case of the country surrendering its massive post-Soviet nuclear weapons arsenal in the 1990s which he said was essentially decided for them, and with no real benefit to Ukraine.

Speaking to ITV now, Zelensky made similar remarks on the importance he sees of Ukraine’s wishes being respected around the negotiating table. One demand is that a peace is a definite end to the war, not breathing space for Russia to strengthen its armed forces and then re-launch the war again in future. He said that he had spoken to President Trump and had told him: “if we don’t have security guarantees, then we have a frozen conflict. We’ve already been through that.

“A frozen conflict will lead to Putin coming back again with his aggression… and this will be defeat for absolutely everyone. This is important for us and for Trump, he needs to not only end the war, he needs to do what it takes to leave Putin without any chances to start another war against us”.

Russia goes both ways on talks, saying it has always been open to dialogue on one hand while insisting actually doing so would be pointless on the other. Last week the Russian Foreign Ministry called any suggestions of peace talks from the West “empty words”, sticking to its position that as Zelensky has cancelled elections during the war, he isn’t a legitimate head of state anyway.

Other nations don’t follow this logic as they generally accept that holding elections in wartime under conditions while millions of citizens are abroad as refugees is probably not conducive to healthy democracy.