Zelenskyy: Security guarantees contain positive points, but US wants them signed alongside peace deal with Russia

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the proposed security guarantees for Ukraine contain good points but that the United States wants them to be signed together with a peace agreement with Russia. Ukraine would like the guarantees to be ratified by Congress.

Source: Zelenskyy in an interview with CNN

Quote: "We have good things in these security guarantees, it's true. But I want [a] very specific answer: what [our] partners will be ready to do if Putin will come again. This is what Ukrainians want to hear."

Details: Zelenskyy also said there are differences over the sequence of steps towards peace.

In particular, US President Donald Trump wants Zelenskyy to sign a peace agreement with Russia and, at the same time, an agreement with the US and European countries that would provide Ukraine with security guarantees – ideally during a grand ceremony marking the end of the war.

However, Zelenskyy believes that the security guarantees should first be agreed and ratified by the US Congress.

He said this would give the Ukrainian people confidence that they can rely on their allies in the future, as they have been disappointed too often in the past.

Zelenskyy also stated that Ukrainian forces will not withdraw from the territories of eastern Donetsk Oblast currently under Ukrainian control.

Quote: "Russia wants [us] just to withdraw our army. … We can't be such, sorry, foolish guys. We are not children. We went through this war, during all these years, and so we just, we can't give them the country on [a] plate."

For people who live there, it's very important what security they will have … 200,000 people live there. What do I have to say [to them] and what [do] our soldiers have to say – 'Okay, bye-bye. We go away. You are Russian from this moment?"

Background:

• Zelenskyy previously said that the US is offering Ukraine security guarantees for 15 years, while Ukraine is seeking a period of more than 20 years.
• He also stated that the document on security guarantees from the US is completely ready to sign.
• Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president stressed that no one can guarantee that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not attack again in the future.

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