The international delegation, headed by Ana Lucía Bueno, ICRC Public Health Coordinator, and Sujit Panda, Head of the Physical Rehabilitation…
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared new details about negotiations with his American counterpart Donald Trump.
The President reported this on December 29.
Security guarantees
“The President of the United States confirmed strong security guarantees. All the details that we had previously developed — our technical teams, negotiating teams, regarding the details of security guarantees — he confirmed them and confirmed that they will be voted on in the Congress of the United States of America. This is a very strong agreement.
Second: we discussed a package of support for Ukraine’s recovery after the end of the war. An economic package. This includes the entry of American business, special conditions for the development and recovery of Ukraine, and the development of a free trade agreement with the United States of America. The President of the United States also confirmed this.
And we are getting as close as possible to another result within the 20-point plan.
We discussed this in teams, and yesterday agreed with the President of the United States of America that we will have security guarantees — strong ones — from the United States. For now, these are not permanent. In the documents, they are for 15 years with the possibility of extension. I raised this issue with the President. I told him that our war has already been going on for more than a decade, and therefore we would very much like the guarantees to be for a longer period. We would very much like to consider the possibility of 30, 40, 50 years, and that would then be a historic decision by President Trump. The President said that the United States will think about it”, — the President noted.
Meeting in Ukraine
“With the American side, we developed a sequencing plan: the order of actions, our strategy to move step by step, when and what we want to finalize and agree on with partners.
First of all, we want a meeting at the level of national security advisers in the coming days. Rustem Umerov has already contacted all advisers — American and European. And I think that this meeting will take place in Ukraine.
Next: at the advisers’ level, we will prepare all documents — and there will be a meeting at the level of European leaders first with Ukraine in a broad format, the Coalition of the Willing Plus. And this meeting will take place. I began discussing it immediately after the meeting with President Trump. I have already contacted President Macron and several other partners and will continue these consultations.
At this meeting, we will approve the documents at the leaders’ level. And we will prepare a meeting with President Trump and European leaders. We are all serious about these meetings taking place in January. And after that, if everything goes step by step, there will be a meeting in one format or another with the ‘Russians’. We are ready for the appropriate formats that we have already discussed,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote.
There is no alternative to peace
“We believe with the Americans — here our position is unified — that the war must be ended diplomatically, that Russia must be pressured; otherwise, the war will continue. Of course, if the war continues, the Americans will continue together with the Europeans to help Ukraine, because we are defending ourselves in this war, we are fighting, we are not the aggressor.
The Russians’ attitude to a referendum is not positive, because a referendum requires security infrastructure. This means a ceasefire is needed, and the Russians do not want to give us a ceasefire for as many days as are needed to hold a referendum — that is 60 days. This is a very difficult issue, and Russia wants to continue putting pressure on us by continuing the war, missiles, artillery, and so on. That is why we are fighting for this.
There is also the question of the strength of these agreements — the strength of recognition of these agreements. Ukraine had the Budapest Memorandum, signed by individuals — it did not work. Then there were the Minsk agreements, which led to a full-scale war. All these papers did not work.
We have now agreed with the Americans that we will have security guarantees that will be supported by the US Congress, which is very important, and by the Parliament of Ukraine. The security guarantees will be voted on bilaterally. And our bilateral agreements with Europeans, accordingly, will later be ratified in European parliaments, so that these agreements have force”, — the President noted.
A referendum is needed
“And we believe that the 20-point plan must be approved in a referendum. This is the strongest historical signature of the power of this document, and we would very much like to do this. Of course, not everyone views this positively. Because it definitely leads to an open expression of will not by one person, not by 450 people, but by millions of people.
It is very important that this be the will of the Ukrainian people, that the Ukrainian nation accept this peace and support this plan. Therefore, a referendum is a powerful thing. Ukrainians, who have suffered more than anyone in this war, must be happy with the end of this war and with the format of this agreement. This is what a just peace is about”, — Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes.
The issue of Donbas
“As for withdrawal from Donbas: it is not news that Russia wants this. In their rosy dreams, they want us not to exist at all on the territory of our country. These dreams are more than a year old. But we have our land, our territorial integrity, our state, and our interests. We will act in accordance with the interests of Ukraine”, — the President said.
Money from the aggressor
“We are interested in Russia giving us money and that these be reparations. It is important for us to receive money to rebuild our state. And reparations loans — we have already resolved all this with the Europeans, because most of the frozen assets are there.
I am glad that they supported our position. We will receive the first 100 billion in the next two years in equal tranches. If there is no war, we will spend this money on rebuilding our state. If we have to defend ourselves, then there will be funds to buy this protection”, — Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted.
