Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for the creation of a European army to boost the continent’s defenses as he warned that Russia was “not preparing for dialogue” to advance possible credible peace talks.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine had intelligence that Russia plans to send troops to its ally Belarus this summer under the pretense of training exercises, but warned that it posed a direct threat to bordering NATO countries.
“We must build the armed forces of Europe, so that Europe’s future depends only on Europeans,” Zelenskyy told the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
“Putin clearly sees Belarus as just another Russian province now,” he added.
The Ukrainian president met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Friday to discuss rising hopes for a Russia-Ukraine peace deal, but noted that his country wanted “security guarantees” before any talks with Russia commence.
“This is not a country that wants peace,” Zelenskyy said of Russia. “It is not preparing for dialogue.”
Zelenskyy on Friday told NBC News that it would be “very, very, very difficult” for Ukraine to survive without U.S. military support, both now and in the event of a possible future Russian invasion.
He also told the conference earlier in the day that Ukraine would need to double the size of its army if it was unable to join NATO.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that U.S. troops would not be stationed in Ukraine to act as a deterrent to further Russian aggression. He has suggested, instead, that Washington and Kyiv would strike an economic pact, focusing on the latter’s vast supply of critical minerals, to provide the embattled country with a post-war security shield.
US Vice President JD Vance (R), US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (2nd R) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) meet on the sidelines of the 61st Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, southern Germany on February 14, 2025.
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Global defense and security officials are gathered in Munich, Germany for the annual three-day conference, where the future of Ukraine, peace talks with Russia and reshaping Europe’s security and defense architecture are at the forefront of discussions.
Prospects for a peace deal returned to the fore this week after President Trump held separate phone calls with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and, later, Zelenskyy. After initially indicating that a bilateral deal could be struck between Washington and Moscow, Trump later said that Ukraine’s Zelenskyy would be involved, along with “a lot of other people.”
U.S. officials have, nevertheless, poured cold water on several of Zelenskyy’s hard lines for an agreement, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday saying that both NATO membership and the reinstatement of Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders were unrealistic outcomes.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated shortly.
