President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 18 that he will directly discuss territory with Russian President Vladimir Putin in potential peace talks, as Ukraine calls for unconditional negotiations.
“(T)he question of territory is a question that we will leave between me and Putin. Security guarantees will probably be negotiated with our partners,” Zelensky said outside the White House following a meeting with Trump and European leaders.
U.S. President Donald Trump met Zelensky at the White House on Aug. 18. The U.S. leader first met Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15 as he intensifies efforts to broker a peace deal.
Trump has said he plans to host a bilateral meeting between Zelensky and Putin, followed by a trilateral meeting consisting of the three leaders.
Following the White House meeting, Zelensky noted that Ukraine is ready to hold unconditional peace talks with Russia.
“We are ready, as I said, for any formats, meetings at the level of the leaders, and if Ukraine begins to set conditions for a global meeting, without conditions for a fair one, then the Russians will have 100 conditions on their side. Therefore, I believe that we must meet without any conditions,” he said.
Some parts of Ukraine were not occupied via military force, and this should be considered in peace negotiations, Zelensky said amid Russian demands to retain occupied Ukrainian territory.
“It is very important to understand that some parts of our country, parts of the east, for example, and Crimea, were occupied not because one army pushes the other, and the other steps back. But because there were no hostilities, for example, there were no mass hostilities in Crimea. Therefore, it cannot be said that such a large part was occupied because the Russians had a strong army,” Zelensky said.
Peace talks will include efforts to return Ukrainian children abducted by Russia as the U.S. signals it will be involved in the process, he said.
“(T)he United States of America understands that they will be involved in such an important, painful, and very difficult issue of how to return Ukrainian children,” Zelensky said. “We talked to the President of the United States of America. He agrees that it is not a simple system, but it will help me in exchanging everyone for everyone, not only the military prisoners.”
Ukraine will need additional funding amid Russia’s continued assaults on Ukraine’s front lines, Zelensky said.
“Additional finance is needed. I am going to find all this money. For this, our European partners need to understand that we need to find a source of financing for some period of time.”
“It should be a part of the security guarantees. In addition to wages and financial support, we may not have enough budget for all salaries. Then, for example, we will not have enough money for our domestic production… Therefore, if we ourselves finance high salaries for our soldiers, we will need a lot of money for our production,” Zelensky said.
When Ukraine is ready to export domestically made drones, Washington will be ready to purchase the military equipment to help support Ukraine’s drone production, he noted.
“We have an agreement with the President of the United States of America that when the export opens, they will buy Ukrainian drones. This is important for us. This will finance our domestic production of drones, Zelensky said.
Now that the U.S. has intensified efforts to broker a peace deal to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, over 30 countries in the “coalition of the willing” will be ready to support Ukraine and provide security guarantees.
“It is important that the United States of America makes a clear signal that it will be among the countries that will help, coordinate, and will also be participants in the security guarantees for Ukraine. I think this is a big step forward,” Zelensky said.
Among those in the coalition are European countries, Canada, and Japan.
Some of Ukraine’s allies in the coalition are ready to provide a peacekeeping force on the ground, and others will provide support, Zelensky noted.
“Someone will probably be ready to talk about presence. Someone will talk about intelligence. Someone will talk about the sea. Someone will talk about the safety of the sky.”
“Ukraine is not alone, and it is important that we have such strong support,” he said.
As Zelensky, Trump prepare to talk about peace, most Russian demands are non-starters for Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has laid out a number of demands that he would require to stop his country’s war against Ukraine. Most of these demands are non-starters for Ukraine, analysts say. Russia has demanded a full Ukrainian withdrawal from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, de jure recognition of the occupied territories as Russian, a special status for the Russian-backed church and the Russian language in Ukraine, Kyiv’s demilitarization, and a ban on Kyiv’s NATO membership. In exchange,
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