Zelenskyy seeks long-range security commitment

Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy seeks a 50-year security commitment from Trump and says talks with Russia could happen.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that he had requested security guarantees for Ukraine for up to 50 years during his meeting with US President Donald Trump over the weekend.

Commenting on his talks with Trump in Florida on Sunday, Zelenskyy told reporters that he had said a meeting with Russia would only be possible once the presidents and European leaders agreed on a framework peace agreement for Ukraine.

In a report by Reuters on Monday, Zelenskyy said he had requested security guarantees for Ukraine for up to 50 years, but the current 20-point peace plan includes a 15-year guarantee—aimed at preventing future Russian aggression.

Zelenskyy said he plans to meet with European leaders in the coming days to discuss the proposals. He said any peace plan should be put to a referendum before the Ukrainian people and added that any vote to approve or reject the agreement should take place during a 60-day ceasefire. Following several days of heavy drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, Zelenskyy said, “Russia clearly does not want a ceasefire right now.”

The Ukrainian president’s comments came after talks with Trump on Sunday at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. Trump said the discussions went well but acknowledged that “one or two very complicated issues” still remain.

Emerging from the talks, Trump told reporters, “I think we’re getting very close, maybe very, very close.”

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy described the talks as a “really very good discussion,” with “100% agreement” on security guarantees, but Trump offered a slightly less optimistic assessment when asked about that part of the proposal.

When a reporter asked which issues remained unresolved, Trump said it was about “land.” “Some of that land has been taken,” Trump said. “Some of that land can probably be taken, but it can be taken over the next few months, and it would be better for you to make a deal now.”

Moscow has demanded that Ukraine cede the eastern Donbas region to Russia and has so far rejected security guarantees for Kyiv. Ukraine, meanwhile, has repeatedly rejected demands to hand over Donbas, which is mostly, but not entirely, occupied by Russian forces.

It is unclear whether Zelenskyy would meet face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin if a peace agreement were reached in principle, as the two leaders have previously refused to meet.

When asked to comment on the U.S.-Ukraine talks that followed that call, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday, “We don’t know how they went. We can’t judge. After these talks, the two presidents—I mean the Russian president and the president of the United States—agreed to have another phone call. That’s when we will get the information.”