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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected calls for Ukraine to agree an immediate ceasefire in its war with Russia, saying it would be “failure for everyone” if a cessation of hostilities were not accompanied by detailed security guarantees.
The defiant Ukrainian president said he saw no need to make amends for an explosive row with Donald Trump at the White House on Friday or come up with a plan to salvage his relationship with the US president, although he restated his gratitude to the American people.
“This relationship will continue because this is more than a relationship in one moment,” Zelenskyy, who was speaking after meeting more than a dozen European leaders at a summit in London on Sunday, said in reference to the bust-up that shocked Kyiv’s allies.
Trump and his allies have said Kyiv should be willing to agree a ceasefire, a point echoed by Lord Peter Mandelson, the UK’s ambassador to Washington, on Sunday.
Zelenskyy said Russia’s failure to abide by a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine after invading in 2014 convinced him that it would be a mistake to agree to stop fighting without an enforcement mechanism backed up by military force.
“If you don’t have an end to the war and you don’t have security guarantees, no one is able to control a ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said from London’s Stansted airport as he prepared to fly back to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader was asked about the Franco-British proposal for a month-long “truce in the air, at sea and on energy infrastructure”, but declined to comment.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he would work on plans for a stabilisation force for Ukraine involving France and potentially other countries before presenting them to Trump in the hope of persuading him to provide a US backstop for any European mission.
The Ukrainian leader said Starmer’s announcement was a “good signal”, but a lot of details still needed to be worked out.
“We will have a working plan of action and a clearer vision of what security guarantees can be given to Ukraine,” he said of Sunday’s meeting. “For us, security guarantees are confidence that the same things won’t happen after this hot stage [is over].”
Zelenskyy said he had no direct contact with Trump since Friday’s acrimonious meeting, but there had been communication between officials and he was “prepared to continue the dialogue”. He said he was ready for his ministers to sign a contentious deal to jointly exploit Ukraine’s mineral rights with the US government, which he was supposed to do on Friday at the Oval Office.
Zelenskyy also said it was important to meet the president face to face because there were too many mixed messages coming from the Trump administration.
“All of these structures are sending signals to each other. And I think it would be simpler to have more time for direct dialogue.
“I don’t know their tactics,” he said, adding he did not want “surprises” in talks with the US.
He said it was right to have a frank conversation with Trump, but blamed the “absolutely open” format of Friday’s talks, which were conducted in front of the media.
Asked how long Ukraine could keep defending itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion without more US military aid, Zelenskyy said Kyiv would “like to hope for new assistance” as well as the deliveries approved at the end of former president Joe Biden’s administration.
“It’s not beneficial to anyone should [the military aid] stop,” he said, adding that “would be a help to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin exclusively”.
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