Kyiv has warned that any peace deal appeasing Russia would repeat the “betrayal” of the 1938 Munich agreement, as Moscow vowed to occupy all of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine by force if its defenders refused to withdraw.
“Europe had too many unfair peace deals in the past. All of them only led to new catastrophes,” Ukrainian foreign minister Andriy Sybiha said on Thursday, as security officials from Kyiv were due to meet US envoy Steve Witkoff in Miami to discuss his talks earlier this week with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“Future generations will be looking back at us today. If we want them to give a fair assessment of our deeds – we need to act now. Act, to achieve a true, fair and lasting peace – for Ukraine and for all of Europe,” Mr Sybiha said at the Vienna headquarters of the 57-nation Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
“And we still remember the names of those who betrayed future generations in Munich. This should never repeat again. Principles must be untouchable. And we need real peace, not appeasement,” he added, referring to Britain and France’s acceptance of Nazi Germany’s occupation of part of Czechoslovakia in the vain hope of averting war.
RM Block
Ukraine and Russia say talks with US envoys will continue despite there being no sign that Mr Putin is ready to soften his maximalist demands that Kyiv give up swathes of territory, abandon its hopes of joining Nato, accept limits on the size of its army and forget about Russian officials and soldiers ever facing justice for alleged war crimes.
“Either we liberate these territories by force of arms, or Ukrainian troops leave these territories,” Mr Putin told Indian media ahead of a two-day visit to New Delhi, referring to the Donbas area where Kyiv still holds the fortified and heavily populated cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.
Russia demands that the content of its talks with the White House remain confidential, fuelling fears in Kyiv and many European capitals that Mr Putin and US president Donald Trump could agree a secret pact and present it to the world as a done deal.
[ Spike in Russian shadow fleet activities during Zelenskiy visitOpens in new window ]
German magazine Spiegel reported on Thursday that the country’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and French president Emmanuel Macron said in a call with the leaders of Ukraine and other European states that they did not trust the White House.
“There is a chance that the US will betray Ukraine on territory without clarity on security guarantees,” it quoted Mr Macron as saying.
Mr Merz reportedly warned Ukraine to be “very careful” because US negotiators were “playing games with both you and us”.
The German leader scrapped plans to travel to Norway and will instead visit Belgium on Friday amid efforts to persuade it to drop its objections to a European Commission plan to use Russian assets frozen in the Belgian banking system to fund Ukraine.
Moscow denounces the plan as “theft” and says it would retaliate against any country that took part in the operation if it secured the approval of European Union states.
“If the crazy European Union does, after all, try to steal Russian assets ... it may well be classified as a special case of casus belli under international law, with all the relevant implications for Brussels and individual EU countries,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.
Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, denied Russia’s claim to have full control of the small Donbas city of Pokrovsk and the neighbouring town of Myrnohrad, but said fighting in the area was “extremely difficult”.
“The battle continues,” he said. “Our soldiers still hold certain areas inside these towns.
