Ukraine has said it could never accept any decisions about its future that were made behind its back, as the European Union pledged to support Kyiv if it rejected any “dirty deal” agreed by US president Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Moscow welcomed Mr Trump’s call to Mr Putin on Wednesday and an announcement by US secretary for defence Pete Hegseth that Ukraine should not expect to regain all occupied areas, join Nato or secure US peacekeepers as part of a negotiated end to Russia’s invasion.
The US announcement was a blow to Ukrainian officials and people in Kyiv, and came just hours after the city’s air defences thwarted a Russian ballistic missile strike that killed one person and injured several others.
“It’s important that everything does not go according to Putin’s plan, in which he wants to do everything to make his negotiations bilateral between him and the United States. We, as an independent country, simply could not accept any agreements without us,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.
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EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas criticised Washington for bowing to two of Mr Putin’s main demands towards Ukraine – his insistence that Kyiv cede swathes of territory and abandon its hopes of joining Nato – before negotiations had even begun.
“It’s appeasement – it has never worked,” Ms Kallas said in Brussels, warning that “any quick fix is a dirty deal”.
“If there is agreement made behind our backs, it will simply not work. Because you need, for any kind of deal ... Europeans to implement this deal, you need the Ukrainians to implement this deal,” she added. “The Ukrainians will resist and we will support them.”
The Kremlin said it saw the US as its “main interlocutor” on how to end the war, but a separate track of talks would include Ukraine.
Many Ukrainians fear Russia will use a ceasefire to rearm, conscript more troops and launch a fresh attack on their country, and Mr Zelenskiy said he had “warned world leaders against trusting Putin’s claims of readiness to end the war”.
Recalling the predawn missile attack that shook Kyiv awake on Wednesday, Kira Rudik, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, said: “Putin is a liar. You cannot say that you want peace and at the same time launch ballistic missiles at a city where millions of people live.”
[ Trump’s opening gambit to end war shakes Ukraine and stirs RussiaOpens in new window ]
Other Ukrainians saved some of their ire for the US: “Western arrogance remains astonishing. They learned nothing from this war,” said Tymofiy Mylovanov, head of the Kyiv School of Economics and a former Ukrainian minister for economy.
“Three years ago, Washington was convinced Ukraine would collapse in three days ... Today, the same arrogance drives efforts to carve up Ukraine, assuming it will simply comply.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday night, Mr Trump said Ukraine would have a seat at the table during any peace negotiations with Russia. “They’re part of it. We would have Ukraine, and we have Russia, and we’ll have other people involved, a lot of people.” – Additional reporting by Reuters
