Ukraine said it must receive strong security guarantees and more arms from allies before any peace negotiations with Russia, and did not rule out the possibility of western troops being deployed on its territory..
Incoming US president Donald Trump has claimed he can end Europe’s biggest war since 1945 “in one day”, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he discussed “freezing” the conflict with Mr Trump and French president Emmanuel Macron when they met in Paris on Saturday.
“I said that we, more than anyone else in the world, want the war to end. And, of course, a diplomatic end to the war will save more lives. And we want that. But I emphasised to both President Macron and President Trump: you will see that [Vladimir] Putin does not want this war to end, so he must be forced into it,” Mr Zelenskiy said in Kyiv on Monday, referring to Russia’s president.
“He can only be forced if Ukraine is strong. A strong Ukraine, in the context of any diplomacy, means a strong military on the battlefield. It means a strong army, weapons packages, long-range systems ... All of this is critically important to us.”
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Mr Zelenskiy also recalled that Mr Macron refused earlier this year to rule out the possible deployment of western troops to Ukraine, which has been fighting a full-scale Russian invasion since February 2022.
“We can work on Emmanuel’s proposal. He proposed that troops of this or that country could be present on Ukrainian territory to guarantee security while Ukraine is not in Nato ... But first, we must have a clear understanding of when Ukraine will be in the EU and Nato,” he said.
The question of possibly deploying troops to Ukraine is now being discussed more often by European officials as they prepare for Mr Trump’s return to the White House and worry about how he will address the war and relations with the EU and Nato.
[ Kyiv and Moscow cite conditions after Trump calls for immediate Ukraine ceasefireOpens in new window ]
“There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin,” Mr Trump wrote on social media on Sunday, claiming that Russia had lost 600,000 soldiers in its invasion and Ukraine had “ridiculously” lost 400,000 defending itself.
In apparent response to Mr Trump’s post, Mr Zelenskiy said 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 370,000 injuries to troops had been registered. The Kremlin said Mr Trump’s figures were not accurate.
German opposition leader Friedrich Merz, who hopes to become chancellor in February election, said in Kyiv on Monday that he wanted to strengthen its arsenal and loosen or remove restrictions on hitting military targets deep inside Russia: “With these range limits, we are forcing your country to fight with one hand tied behind your back.”
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