The Ukrainian president says the lack of security guarantees is enabling the war with Russia to continue.
Ukrainian President Voldy Mie Zelensky reiterated on Monday that Ukraine needs a solid security guarantee to achieve “real just peace” and end the war with Russia.
His remarks came after a high-level meeting with Ukrainian leaders. Meanwhile, authorities analyzed military aid packages, defense contracts and strategies to protect Ukraine’s long-term security. According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s main purpose is to preserve its position on the battlefield while creating diplomatic terms for sustainable peace.
“The baseline scenario is to hold a position for proper diplomacy and create conditions for proper diplomacy. We need peace, or just peace, not endless war,” he said. “And you need a security guarantee.”
Zelenskyy said that due to Ukraine’s lack of security guarantees, Russia occupied Crimea and wage wars in Donbas 11 years ago, and later promoted a full-scale invasion of Moscow. He added that the fact that such guarantees are not ongoing now allows the war to continue.
“It’s Russia that’s continuing this war because there are no defined security guarantees yet,” he said. “The whole world sees this and the whole world recognizes this.”
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Ukraine’s demand for security assurances has become a central issue in diplomatic debates with Western allies, particularly in consultations with the US. These debates focused on following a controversial White House meeting between Zelensky and President Donald Trump. The conference originally aimed to establish an economic cooperation agreement that granted US access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for continued military support, but was left to a fierce exchange over a path to end the war.
During the oval office meeting, Trump pushed for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations with Russia, but Zelensky challenged the feasibility of an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky insisted an explicit security guarantee from the United States as part of a future peace agreement with Moscow, but Trump rejected the idea, saying that US economic involvement in the Ukrainian mineral sector would serve as a sufficient deterrent against future Russian attacks. Eventually, Zelenskyy was asked to leave the White House without signing the proposed economic agreement.
Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with Zelensky’s statements, particularly his assertion that peace remains elusive. In a post about the True Society, Trump criticized Zelensky’s stance as counterproductive and suggested that Ukraine did not want to pursue peace with Russia. In a comment to a White House reporter, Trump again suggested that Zelensky doesn’t want to make a peace deal, adding that he believes Zelensky’s days as president of Ukraine are numbered for leadership stance.
“He said he thinks the war will last for a long time,” Trump said of Zelensky. “And he’s better not to be right about that.”
