 "Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. File Image- AP")
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday said that the country’s chance of survival is ‘very low’ without US support as President Donald Trump pushes for negotiation to end the nearly three-year-long war.
Talking to NBC News, Zelenskyy said, “Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, in all the difficult situations you have a chance. But we will have low chance – low chance to survive without support of the United States.”
“I don’t want to think that we will not be strategic partners,” he added.
The Ukrainian president asserted that Putin has no intention of ending the war and is instead seeking a temporary ceasefire to ease sanctions, allowing Russia’s military time to regroup.
He also expressed concerns over the possibility that Ukraine’s military will be weakened without Washington’s continued support which will make it more vulnerable to Russia.
Zelenskyy meets JD Vance
The Ukrainian president met US Vice President JD Vance on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
During their meeting, Zelenskyy sought “security guarantees” from Vance for continued US support. Speaking with reporters in Munich, Zelensky stressed the need to “speak more” with the White House before any endgame to the war is formulated.
“We want peace very much but we need real security guarantees,” he said after his first meeting with Vance.
Vance meanwhile described “good conversations” with Zelensky, and acknowledged the administration’s goal of bringing the war to a close.
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More Shorts“We want to achieve a durable, lasting peace, not the kind of peace that’s going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road,” Vance said as the meeting wrapped up.
Russia claims capture of Ukrainian village
Meanwhile, Russia’s army on Saturday claimed to have captured a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region close to a road linking key towns as Moscow slowly eats up territory.
The Russian ministry of defence said in a statement that it had captured the village of Berezivka, which lies close to a road linking the important mining hub of Pokrovsk to another key town, Kostiantynivka.
With inputs from agencies