The Ukrainian president’s comments come a day before a third round of trilateral talks between Kyiv, Moscow, and Washington are set to begin in Geneva.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Feb. 16 called for security guarantees backed by the U.S. Congress before any peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow is signed.
Zelenskyy said in a post on X that U.S. security guarantees “will work only after a vote in Congress,” adding that Washington was pushing Ukraine to cede territory before the guarantees were given.
“When you want to get compromises from people who are under attacks and who are not aggressors—what do you give them? They don’t trust anybody. They don’t trust anybody because we had Budapest Memorandum. That was security guarantees. We gave up our nuclear and other weapons. A lot of aircraft—dozens of jets,” he wrote.
“We gave them up and received security guarantees of sovereignty and independence. In the end, we don’t have those weapons, and we don’t have security guarantees. Nobody saved our independence.”
Zelenskyy said this is why “people have to see what the security guarantees will look like.”
He added that the United States was preparing security guarantees, but that Washington wanted a “swap of territories, or something like that,” before the guarantees were made.
“I think—first, security guarantees. Second, we will not give up our territories because we are ready for compromise. What kind of compromise are we ready for? Not for the compromise that gives Russia the opportunity to recover quickly and come again and occupy us. This is an important thing,” he said.
The Epoch Times reached out to the U.S. State Department and the White House for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Zelenskyy’s comments build on remarks he made in Vilnius, Lithuania, during a trip in January, when he said that a U.S. document laying out security guarantees for Ukraine is ready and only needs to be signed.
“For us, security guarantees are first and foremost guarantees of security from the United States. The document is 100 percent ready, and we are waiting for our partners to confirm the date and place when we will sign it,” Zelenskyy said at a news conference in Vilnius.
Zelenskyy added that after such a document was signed, it would be “sent for ratification to the U.S. Congress and the Ukrainian parliament.”
He didn’t provide details on the nature of the guarantees provided in the document then, and has not done so since.
By Guy Birchall
