KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he could meet with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, but only after his allies agree on security guarantees for Ukraine to deter future Russian attacks once the fighting stops.
In comments released on Thursday (Aug 21), he also warned that both sides were preparing for further fighting. Russia was building up troops on the southern frontline and Ukraine was test-launching a new long-range cruise missile, he said.
Russia said on Thursday that Ukraine did not appear to be interested in “long-term” peace, accusing Kyiv of seeking security guarantees completely incompatible with Moscow’s demands.
United States President Donald Trump is trying to end Russia’s three-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine through talks with Zelenskyy and Putin.
While he has upended a years-long Western policy of isolating the Russian leader, he has made little tangible progress towards a peace deal.
“We want to have an understanding of the security guarantees architecture within seven to 10 days,” Zelenskyy said, in comments to reporters released for publication on Thursday.
“We need to understand which country will be ready to do what at each specific moment,” he added.
A group of allies led by Britain and France are putting together a military coalition to support the guarantees.
FRESH RUSSIAN BARRAGE
Once an outline of the security guarantees is agreed upon, Trump would like to see a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian leader said.
But any meeting with the Russian leader should he held in a “neutral” European country, he added, ruling out any summit in Moscow.
He also rejected the idea of China playing a role in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security, citing Beijing’s alleged support for Moscow.
In a daily address on Thursday, Zelenskyy accused Russia of avoiding the “necessity” of holding a meeting between the two countries’ leaders.
“Current signals from Russia are, to be honest, indecent. They’re trying to avoid the necessity to meet. They don’t want to end this war,” Zelenskyy said.
His comments came as Russia launched hundreds of drones and missiles against Ukraine overnight – the biggest barrage since mid-July – killing one person in the western city of Lviv and wounding many others.
Russian missiles also targeted an American-owned factory complex in town of Mukachevo in the west of Ukraine, wounding 19 people, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on social media.
The president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, Andy Hunder, said that the factory was “one of the largest American investments in Ukraine”.
“Russia continues to destroy and humiliate US businesses in Ukraine, targeting companies that invest and trade on the US stock markets,” Hunder said on Facebook.
France on Thursday condemned the overnight strikes as showing Moscow’s “lack of will to seriously engage in peace talks”, describing them as the “most massive attack in a month”.
A later shelling of the city of Kherson killed one person and wounded more than a dozen, a local official said.
Meanwhile in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, two people were killed and at least 21 wounded after a Ukrainian shelling, the Russian-installed regional chief, Denis Pushilin, said on Telegram.
