Feb. 14 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky questioned Friday the credibility of peace efforts by the Trump administration to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, saying he could not “see a ready U.S. plan.”
Arriving at the Munich Security Conference in southern Germany where he was due to meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Zelensky said while the signs from Washington were promising, talks thus far were “definitely not enough to form a plan” for peace, stressing it was critical Ukraine be in NATO and that it would never give up territory.
“I don’t see that the United States has a ready-made plan. I think this is very important. We are ready to talk at any time, we understand the geography of our country, we see where the biggest risks are,” Zelensky said.
“We’re ready to talk about everything from troops to security guarantees, we’re in NATO, we’re ready for any plan to stop Putin. We are open, but we want to act in accordance with international law and order and to prevent future fears or horrors for the whole world — Putin’s return. We have given the Americans all this information.”
Zelensky said that while the current climate in America meant the Trump administration was not ready to talk about NATO membership and were saying so publicly, Ukraine still wanted it due to the security guarantees it provided.
“We trust NATO, we trust these security guarantees. I’m being pragmatic and honest, this is the cheapest option for everyone,” he said.
Zelensky said the alternative would still require European input, NATO weapons on Ukrainian soil and building up its military, including a doubling of combat troop levels to 1.5 million and a $20 billion hike in its military budget to $60 billion — resources that Ukraine doesn’t have.
Zelensky also appeared to criticize a lack of seniority among the U.S. delegation at the conference, saying there “were some decisions which can be only on the level of presidents.”
Kicking off the conference, Vance stressed the importance of the Europe and NATO alliances for the United States but said the existing relationship needed reform so that they could become more self-reliant as the focus of American foreign policy pivots to the Asia Pacific.
“Europe is of course a very important ally to the United States, NATO is a very important military alliance … but we want to make sure NATO is actually built for the future, and part of that is ensuring that NATO does a little bit more burden-sharing in Europe so the United States can focus on some of our challenges in East Asia,” said Vance.
Vance told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that troops in Ukraine was still an option if Russia refused to cooperate in any negotiations in good faith, but expressed confidence that wouldn’t be necessary.
“I think there is a deal that is going to come out of this that’s going to shock a lot of people. The president is not going in this with blinders on. He’s going to say, ‘Everything is on the table, let’s make a deal.'”
Vance repeated that the U.S. starting and end point of the peace effort was independence for Ukraine, but said it was impossible to say how much Ukrainian territory would still be under Russian control when the process was concluded.
“There are any number of formulations, of configurations, but we do care about Ukraine having sovereign independence,” he said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meeting with his Polish counterpart in Warsaw on Friday, bore down on statements to a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels on Wednesday that neither a return Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders or NATO membership were realistic endpoints of any peace deal.
Speaking at a news briefing alongside Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, Hegseth said anything was possible but that he had a responsibility to inject some clear-sightedness to the debate by telling Ukrainian and European officials that NATO membership and Ukraine regaining all its territory back were not likely outcomes.
“My job today and in Brussels was to introduce realism to the conversation — the reality that returning to 2014’s borders as part of a negotiated settlement is unlikely. The reality of U.S. troops in Ukraine is unlikely. The reality of Ukraine membership in NATO as part of a negotiated settlement — unlikely,” he said.
The annual security conference comes two days after Trump announced the “immediate” start of U.S.-led peace talks, following a 90-minute phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the first official contact between leaders of the two countries since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2024.
