Ukraine Needs European, US Security Guarantees: Zelensky

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged European countries to provide guarantees to protect Ukraine after the war with Russia ends but said these would not be enough without support from the United States under Donald Trump.
While the fighting triggered by Russia's 2022 invasion goes on with no end in sight, Western and Ukrainian officials have begun discussing post-war scenarios, prompted in part by President-elect Trump's pledge to bring the conflict to a swift conclusion.
Addressing a summit of European Union leaders, Zelensky welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron's proposal to deploy troops to Ukraine following an eventual ceasefire.
He told the leaders it was“crucial for Europe to make a significant contribution to security guarantees”.
“We support France's initiative for a military contingent in Ukraine as part of these guarantees and call on other partners to join this effort, it will help bring the war to an end,” he told the closed-door meeting, according to a text posted on his website.
However, he said, the French initiative needed to be fleshed out.
“If we are talking about a contingent, we need to be specific – how many, what they will do if there is aggression from Russia,” Zelensky said.“The main thing is that this is not some artificial story, we need effective mechanisms.”
He said that Ukraine would ultimately need more protection through membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) military alliance.
Nato has said Ukraine will join its ranks one day but it has not set a date or issued an invitation.
In the meantime, Zelensky said, Ukraine could have separate guarantees from European nations and the United States.
“It is impossible to discuss this only with European leaders, because for us, the real guarantees in any case – today or in the future – are Nato,” he told reporters.
“On the way to Nato, we want security guarantees while we are not in Nato. And we can discuss such guarantees separately with both the US and Europe,” he said.
Whether Trump would be prepared to offer such guarantees is an open question.
Trump has repeatedly called for a swift end to the nearly three-year-old war.
On Monday he said that Zelensky should be ready to reach a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, though he did not say whether this meant Kyiv ceding territory to Moscow as part of a negotiated settlement.
Kyiv is desperate for more air defences and weapons as its flagging forces lose ground across the frontline to Russia.
Russian forces occupy nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory and are making steady advances in the east of the country.
EU leaders aimed to use Thursday's summit to send a clear signal to Trump about their continued support for Ukraine and stress that any peace deal must involve Ukraine and respect its territorial integrity.
“The European Council ... underlines the principle that no initiative regarding Ukraine be taken without Ukraine,” said an official declaration issued by the summit.
Zelensky said any end to fighting would have to be durable.
“We cannot live with a frozen conflict in our territory,” he told reporters.

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