Ukraine relies on US for security guarantee, Europe cannot fill the gap, says Zelenskyy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that if President Donald Trump withdraws US support for Ukraine, Europe will be unable to fill the gap.

Zelenskyy’s statement comes ahead of what may be his most significant diplomatic trip since Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago.

“There are voices which say that Europe could offer security guarantees without the Americans, and I always say no,” The Guardian quoted Ukrainian President as saying during an hour-long interview at the presidential administration building in Kyiv.

“Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees,” he added.

Trump has expressed a desire to end the war in Ukraine, but skeptics worry that a US-brokered deal might require Ukraine to concede to Vladimir Putin’s maximalist demands.

Zelenskyy said he is open to negotiations but insists on doing so from a “position of strength.” He also mentioned plans to offer American companies lucrative reconstruction contracts and investment incentives to garner Trump’s support.

“Those who are helping us to save Ukraine will (have the chance to) renovate it, with their businesses together with Ukrainian businesses. All these things we are ready to speak about in detail,” Zelenskyy was quoted as saying.

Zelenskyy will attend the Munich Security Conference later this week, where he is likely to meet US Vice President JD Vance, known for his hostility toward Ukraine within Trump’s inner circle.

Last year, Vance, then a senator, declined to meet Zelenskyy and said he did not “really care what happens to Ukraine, one way or the other”.

Zelenskyy also plans to meet other members of Trump’s team and influential senators in Munich, but a meeting with Trump is not yet scheduled, though his team is working on it.

Trump mentioned over the weekend that he would “probably” meet Zelenskyy this week, and the Ukrainian President may fly to Washington from Munich, reported The Guardian.

“We are hoping that our teams will fix a date and a plan of meetings in the US; as soon as it is agreed, we are ready, I am ready,” The Guardian quoted Zelenskyy as saying.

During the first phase of the full-scale invasion, Zelenskyy’s communication skills and passionate appeals were instrumental in persuading hesitant Western leaders to support Ukraine with weapons and financial aid. Now, he faces a new challenge with Trump, a major skeptic of ongoing support for Kyiv, becoming the leader of the US, the country’s largest ally.

On Monday, in a Fox News interview, Trump said the US had spent hundreds of billions of dollars on Ukraine in recent years.

“They may make a deal, they may not make a deal, they may be Russian some day, they may not be Russian some day, but we’re gonna have all this money in there and I said I want it back,” he was quoted as saying.

This means that in addition to Zelenskyy’s familiar arguments about the geopolitical and moral risks of allowing Russia to prevail, he has introduced new points tailored for the US president. Notably, he emphasised that the US would gain priority access to Ukraine’s “rare earths,” a prospect that has caught Trump’s attention, leading him to mention it several times in recent media appearances.

Zelenskyy revealed that he pitched this idea to Trump back in September during their meeting in New York and plans to return with “a more detailed plan” outlining opportunities for US companies in both the reconstruction of postwar Ukraine and the extraction of Ukrainian natural resources.

“Ukraine has the biggest uranium and titanium reserves in Europe,” Zelenskyy said, emphasising that it was “not in the interests of the US” for these resources to fall into Russian hands, potentially to be shared with North Korea, China, or Iran.

He highlighted the financial incentives as well.

“We are talking not only about security, but also about money … Valuable natural resources where we can offer our partners possibilities that didn’t exist before to invest in them … For us it will create jobs, for American companies it will create profits,” he added.

Zelenskyy stressed the importance of continued US military support, citing US-made Patriot air defence systems. “Only Patriot can defend us against all kinds of missiles, only Patriots. There are other (European) systems … but they cannot provide full protection … So even from this small example you can see that without America, security guarantees cannot be complete,” he said.

The early days of Trump’s presidency have raised concerns for Ukrainians, marked by a freeze on USAid projects affecting numerous organisations in Ukraine. Trump’s recent admission that he had spoken with Putin to initiate negotiations added to the anxiety.

When asked how many times he had called, he replied, “I’d better not say.”

Zelenskyy remarked that it was “very important” for the US President to meet a Ukrainian delegation before meeting Putin but refrained from criticising Trump’s vague statements.

“Clearly he doesn’t really want everyone to know the details, and that’s his personal decision,” he said.

Zelenskyy is wary of Trump, having been drawn into a US impeachment saga after a 2019 phone call. Now, with Ukraine’s survival hinging on US support, he treads carefully again.

On the USAid freeze, Zelenskyy said, “We aren’t going to complain that some programmes have been frozen, because the most important thing for us is the military aid and that has been preserved, for which I’m grateful … If the American side has the possibility and desire to continue its humanitarian mission, we are fully for it, and if it doesn’t, then we will find our own way out of this situation.”

Trump’s messages on Ukraine have been mixed, emphasising his desire for a peace deal while suggesting Europe should handle post-war stability.

In response, French President Macron proposed a European peacekeeping force for Ukraine post-ceasefire.

“When it comes to Emmanuel’s idea, if it’s part (of a security guarantee) then yes, if there will be 100-150,000 European troops, then yes. But even then we wouldn’t be at the same level of troops as the Russian army that is opposing us,” Zelenskyy said.

Europe is still a long way from agreeing to deploy combat-ready troops to Ukraine, a move that Putin would be unlikely to agree to in negotiations, and Zelenskyy said a softer peacekeeping mission would be unlikely to work unless it came with guarantees that it would stand against Russia if Moscow resumed hostilities.

“I will be open with you, I don’t think that UN troops or anything similar has ever really helped anyone in history. Today we can’t really support this idea. We are for a (peacekeeping) contingent if it is part of a security guarantee, and I would underline again that without America this is impossible,” The Guardian quoted Zelenskyy as saying.

If Trump succeeds in bringing Ukraine and Russia to negotiations, Zelenskyy indicated he would propose a straightforward territory exchange, conceding land in Russia’s Kursk region that Kyiv has occupied since a surprise offensive six months ago.

“We will swap one territory for another,” he said, but added that he did not know which part of Russian-occupied land Ukraine would ask for in return.

“I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority,” he said.

As Zelenskyy focuses on engaging with Trump, he said it’s too early to judge the previous administration. Relations between Kyiv and Washington were said to be increasingly frosty as Zelenskyy’s team grew frustrated with Joe Biden’s focus on managing the risks of escalation.

When asked if Biden would be remembered as the leader who saved Ukraine or one who responded too slowly to Putin, Zelenskyy laughed, calling it “very difficult” to say at this point.

He criticised Biden’s initial reluctance to supply weapons, saying, “this lack of confidence gave confidence to Russia," but acknowledged gratitude for the subsequent support.

The full evaluation, he said, would only emerge with time.

“History shows that there are many things that you just don’t know, what happened behind the scenes, what negotiations there were … it’s hard to characterise it all today because we don’t know everything. Later we will know, we will know everything,” Zelenskyy said.

With inputs from agencies