Zelenskyy accuses US of 'pleasing' Russia, warns of European military weakness

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the United States is trying  to “please” Russia in talks about Ukraine and warned of Europe’s military “weakness.”

In an interview broadcast Monday, Zelenskyy reacted to conciliatory remarks from US officials towards Russia, saying: “The US is now saying things that are very favorable to Putin… because they want to please him.”

“They want to meet quickly and secure a quick win. But what they want – ‘just a ceasefire’ – is not a win,” Zelenskyy added, according to a translation provided by broadcaster ARD of an interview recorded Saturday in Munich.

Europe’s defence capability is ‘weak’

The Ukrainian president warned that Europe was in a weak position if it could not rely on the US security umbrella.

While “readiness has increased” in recent years, “in terms of troop strength, the number of combat troops, the fleet, the air force, the drones… I honestly think that Europe is weak today”, he said.

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US won’t impose peace deal on Ukraine

Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy, said on Monday that no one would impose a peace deal on Kyiv and that questions about whether Washington would provide guarantees for any future European peacekeepers would be addressed later.

“The decision by Ukrainians is a Ukrainian decision,” Kellogg told journalists after talks with US allies at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

“Zelenskyy is the elected leader of a sovereign nation and those decisions are his and nobody will impose those on an elected leader of a sovereign nation,” Kellogg said.

He insisted that his job was to “facilitate” a deal that would “ensure that there are solid security guarantees that Ukraine is a sovereign nation”.

With inputs from agencies