The Ukrainian leader’s speech in Budapest came as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin called Donald Trump ‘courageous’ and called for a ’neutral’ Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said it would be “unacceptable” for Kyiv to make concessions to Russia and “suicidal for Europe.”
His comments at the European Political Community summit in Budapest, on Thursday, come two days after Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election.
Trump has promised to end the war in Ukraine within “24 hours” and has said Kyiv should have made concessions before Russia invaded in Feb. 2022.
But Zelenskyy said, “There has been much talk about the need to yield to Putin, to back down, to make some concessions. It’s unacceptable for Ukraine and suicidal for all Europe.”
Ceasefire Talk is ‘Dangerous’
The Ukrainian leader said: “Talk of a ceasefire is dangerous when there are no security guarantees for Ukraine clear, real, ones that we can trust, not merely rhetorical assurances.”
“Such a ceasefire prepares the ground for continued occupation of Ukraine and the destruction of our independence and sovereignty,” he added.
Zelenskyy said, “A simple ceasefire is a model we are hearing about from some leaders here, from Brazil, from China, and importantly, we are definitely hearing it from Russia. This is a great model for Russia. A ceasefire and then the rest? We need to clearly understand what ‘the rest’ is.”
The Budapest summit is being hosted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Unlike most of the other leaders at the summit, Orban doesn’t believe the West should continue to supply Ukraine with weapons and financial assistance.
Speaking on state radio, Orbán, who is close to both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, reiterated his long-held position that an immediate cease-fire should be declared, and predicted that Trump will bring an end to the conflict.
“If Donald Trump had won in 2020 in the United States, these two nightmarish years wouldn’t have happened, there wouldn’t have been a war,” Orbán said. “The situation on the front is obvious, there’s been a military defeat. The Americans are going to pull out of this war.”
