President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet US Vice President JD Vance in Germany on Friday with a warning against trusting Russia’s Vladimir Putin, as concerns mount in Kyiv and among its European allies that the Ukraine war will be settled over their heads.
The Munich Security Conference starts days after US President Donald Trump and Putin held watershed talks that have shaken Ukraine and America’s NATO allies, almost three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Trump said he had agreed with Putin to soon start Ukraine peace talks and exchange friendly visits. The new US administration also signalled Ukraine would have to give up territory to Russia and that NATO membership for Kyiv was “impractical”.
Vance, ahead of his speech in Munich on Friday, sought to dampen European fears and said “the president is not going to go in this with blinders on,” in comments to the Wall Street Journal. “He’s going to say, ‘Everything is on the table, let’s make a deal,’” Vance added, stressing that there are economic and even “military tools of leverage.” Vance said it was too early to say how much of Ukraine’s territory would remain in Russian hands or what security guarantees the United States and other Western allies could offer Kyiv. “There are any number of formulations, of configurations, but we do care about Ukraine having sovereign independence,” he said.
Zelensky on Thursday warned world leaders “against trusting Putin’s claims of readiness to end the war” and said he wanted the United States to agree a “plan to stop Putin” before any negotiations.
