Ukraine wants 20-year US security guarantee to sign peace deal | Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of talks with Russia and the United States next week that Ukraine wants at least a 20-year security guarantee from the United States before signing an honorable peace agreement.

In his speech in Munich on Saturday, he also called for a clear date for allowing Ukraine to join the EU. Some EU officials state that the date is as early as 2027.

Speaking at the annual Munich security summit, the Ukrainian president said he hoped “next week’s trilateral meetings will be serious, important and useful for all of us, but to be honest, sometimes it feels like the parties are talking about completely different things.”

“Americans often return to the issue of concessions, and these concessions are discussed only in the context of Ukraine, not in the context of Russia,” he added.

Europe’s frustration with the perceived reluctance of the United States to disclose the security guarantees it is prepared to offer Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement, and the need for the guarantees to be disclosed before a deal is signed, arguably remains the biggest sore in the badly fractured relationship between the United States and Europe.

In a speech welcomed by European leaders who want to see signs of thaw in relations, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered to work jointly with Europe.

However, he emphasized that this offer is highly conditional and that the United States will fulfill this offer on its own unless Washington’s very Trumpian conditions on climate, immigration and tariffs are met.

In his speech at the conference a year ago, Rubio said, “Europe and the United States belong together,” in a diplomatic tone that the US vice president avoided. He said that the United States was ready to take on the task of rebuilding the world order alone if necessary, but “we prefer and hope to do it together with you, our European friends.”

Apart from claiming that the US was pressuring India to stop importing Russian oil, a claim that Russia disputes, he made almost no mention of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At a press conference in Munich, Zelenskyy said that the United States told him that peace would come as soon as possible if Ukraine withdrew from Donbas, but he insisted that this concession was not possible because Ukrainians live there.

He explained that the United States has so far offered a 15-year security guarantee, but Ukraine wants a legally watertight agreement of at least 20 years, setting out the specific assistance the United States would provide to a European reassurance force planned to be stationed inside Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement.

Zelenskyy said that the details of the so-called welfare plan, which will provide the United States with access to Ukraine’s mineral resources, have not yet been shared.

He also questioned why the head of the Russian negotiating team had been replaced, saying he feared it meant the Russians were playing for time rather than changing strategy.

Zelenskyy also complained that Europe was virtually absent from the table. “I think this is a big mistake,” he said, a view shared by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi.

On Friday, Donald Trump called on Zelenskyy to “take action” to reach a deal with Russia. Zelenskyy insisted that the elections, which the United States is pressuring Ukraine to hold by May 15, could be held only two months after a ceasefire was declared to ensure voters had adequate security.

Trump has been trying to pressure Zelenskyy to reach a deal over the months, but has not explained the consequences if Ukraine is not flexible enough for the United States.

Zelenskyy also stated that Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian power plants will be brought to the agenda at the talks in Geneva, adding that there is no longer a single power plant left in Ukraine that is not damaged.

European leaders appear pessimistic that a diplomatic breakthrough will be achieved, with the consensus that Putin is not yet economically or militarily exhausted.

Zelenskyy said his aim was to increase the number of Russians killed or seriously injured to 50,000 per month.

One of the European leaders predicted at least two more years of war and insisted that Europe had the resources to keep Ukraine afloat for that long.

Zelenskyy also launched a fierce attack on the Iranian regime for providing Shahid drones that caused massive damage in Ukraine.

While about 200 thousand protesters attended the demonstration in Munich calling for the overthrow of the Iranian regime, Zelenskyy said: “We have never had a conflict of interest with the Iranian regime. However, the Iranian Shahed unmanned aerial vehicles they sold to Russia are killing our people and destroying our infrastructure.”

He argued that if Iran was given time, it would cause more destruction. “Regimes like the one in Iran should not be given any time; when they have time, they kill more.

“They need to be stopped immediately, and that’s exactly what should have happened to the Ayatollah after the wars his regime started and all the lives it took.”