Ukrainian President Zelenskyy insists Ukraine must be involved in any peace negotiations with Russia, rejecting bilateral talks between Moscow and Washington without Kyiv's participation.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday Ukraine would not accept any bilateral agreement on its fate reached by Moscow and Washington without Kyiv's involvement, and called for Europe to have a seat at the table in negotiations to end the war.
The Ukrainian leader made the comments at a nuclear plant on his way to the Munich Security Conference, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to Russian leader Vladimir Putin Zelenskyy and announced the start of negotiations.
"We, as an independent country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us," Zelenskyy told reporters.
The Putin call and remarks by Trump's defence secretary, who said Kyiv cannot join NATO or that a return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is unrealistic, have caused alarm in Europe that the White House could seek to make a deal with Russia without them.
"Today 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 (with the U.S.)," Zelenskyy said.
He said it was important for the United States and Ukraine to draw up a plan to end the war before talking to the Russian side. He has been pushing to meet Trump before Trump meets Putin, although the U.S. president said on Wednesday that he was expecting to meet Putin in the future, probably in Saudi Arabia.
Ukraine has said it is working on a Zelenskyy-Trump meeting, but nothing firm has been announced so far.
Zelenskyy said he did not discuss the matter of NATO membership during his phone call with Trump, though he said he knew that the United States was against the idea.
He also tried to play down the significance of Trump calling Putin before him on Wednesday, saying it did not look like a marker of Washington's real priorities but adding that it was nonetheless "unpleasant".
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Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief: here are the top news stories for 15 October, covering the latest developments you need to know.
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Blackouts hit Kyiv and several other Ukrainian regions on Tuesday night due to network overload and lingering damage from earlier Russian strikes, according to officials.
Russian forces launched guided bomb attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, on Monday, cutting power to around 30,000 customers across three districts, local officials said.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
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Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A tsunami threat was issued in Chile after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the Drake Passage on Friday. The epicenter was located 135 miles south of Puerto Williams on the north coast of Navarino Island.
The war in Ukraine has reached a strategic impasse, and it seems that the conflict will not be solved by military means. This creates a path toward one of two alternatives: either a “frozen” phase that can last indefinitely or a quest for a durable political regulation.
Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban administration have agreed to a temporary ceasefire for 48 hours starting 6:00 p.m. Pakistan local time (1300 GMT) on Wednesday, Islamabad said, after fresh clashes erupted between the neighbours.
Trade tensions between the United States and China are once again flaring up, as President Donald Trump has signalled that he may consider ending certain trade relations with Beijing.
The insolvency-related fraud trial of fallen Austrian property tycoon Rene Benko entered its second day on Wednesday, with a ruling expected in the afternoon in the first case connected to the collapse of his Signa property empire.
Hungary would suffer if it was cut off from Russian energy, Budapest's foreign minister said during a visit to Moscow on Wednesday, reiterating that the country would not accept outside pressure when it came to decisions on its energy supplies.
Brussels is facing one of its toughest political tests yet. The Patriots for Europe, now the third-largest bloc in the European Parliament, have filed a formal motion of no-confidence against Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission.
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