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Earlier at the conference, Britain blamed the Kremlin for killing opposition leader Alexei Navalny
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said the US “too often” asks Kyiv for concessions, rather than Russia in renewed calls for 20 year security guarantees.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Ukraine’s leader acknowledged he was feeling “a little bit” of pressure from Donald Trump, who yesterday said Zelensky should not miss the “opportunity” to make peace soon and urged him “to get moving”.
“The Americans often return to the topic of concessions and too often those concessions are discussed only in the context of Ukraine, not Russia,” Mr Zelensky said.
He confirmed that the US side had proposed 15 year security guarantees, although Ukraine wanted two decades or more instead.
Earlier at the conference, Britain blamed the Kremlin for killing opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which it said was likely done using a poison developed from a dart frog toxin.
Two years on from the death of Mr Navalny, the UK and its allies have pinned the blame on the Russian state following analysis of material samples found on his body, saying it was likely conducted using a poison developed from a dart frog toxin.
The Kremlin has always denied causing Mr Navalny’s death.
Russia’s decision to replace the head of its negotiating team ahead of the next round of US-brokered talks could be aimed at delaying progress, Volodymyr Zelensky said..
The Ukrainian president said he was surprised by Moscow’s move before the upcoming negotiations in Geneva.
He also said Russian opposition to any foreign troop presence in Ukraine indicated Vladimir Putin wanted to retain the option of attacking again in future.
During negotiations, Russian officials have insisted that Ukraine give up more territory in the east to end the war. Zelensky rejected that demand, calling it “a little bit crazy” to suggest Ukraine withdraw from its own land or exchange it.
Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed defending the Donbas region, he said, noting that around 200,000 people still live there and it would not be acceptable to effectively hand them over to Russia.
Russia is suffering “crazy losses” in Ukraine, tallying around 65,000 soldiers over the last two months, NATO secretary general Mark Rutte said on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
Separately, he told a media roundtable that the NATO alliance was strong enough that Russia would not currently try to attack it.
“We will win every fight with Russia if they attack us now, and we have to make sure in two, four, six years that same is still the case,” he said.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said he met with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the country’s security and ways to deepen defence and economic partnerships.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said he was surprised that Moscow had replaced the head of its negotiating team before another round of US-brokered talks and suggested the move was deliberately aimed at delaying negotiations.
The talks take place against a backdrop of continued fighting along the roughly 1,250-km (750-mile) front line, relentless Russian bombardment of civilian areas of Ukraine and the country’s power grid, and Kyiv’s almost daily long-range drone attacks on war-related assets on Russian soil.
During negotiations, Russian officials have insisted Ukraine give up more territory in the east of the country to end the war. But Mr Zelensky told The Associated Press that it was “a little bit crazy” to suggest Ukraine withdraw from its own territory or exchange it.
Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed defending the country’s Donbas region, he said, pointing out that 200,000 people also live there and it would not be acceptable to effectively hand them over to Russia.
Mr Zelensky also questioned how the concept of a free economic zone would work.
Imagine, he said, if foreign soldiers patrolled the zone and “Putin provoked them and they left”. In that case, he said, there could be a “big occupation” of Ukraine and a lot of losses.
If Mr Putin is given any opportunity for victory “we don’t know what he will do next”, Mr Zelensky said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked his international allies for their support but suggested there was still questions remaining over the future security guarantees for his country.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Mr Zelensky repeatedly thanked American and European allies for helping Ukraine by providing air defence systems that protect infrastructure such as power plants and “save lives”.
Previous US-led efforts to find consensus on ending the war, most recently two rounds of talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, have failed to resolve difficult issues, such as the future of Ukraine’s Donbas industrial heartland that is largely occupied by Russian forces.
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