The United States has offered to provide security guarantees necessary for a peace agreement in Ukraine on the condition that Kiev cedes the entire eastern Donbas region to Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with Reuters, BTA reports.
While Washington is currently focused on its conflict with Iran, President Donald Trump is putting pressure on Ukraine in an attempt to quickly end the four-year war sparked by the Russian invasion in 2022, Zelensky said.
“The Middle East is definitely having an impact on President Trump, and I am thinking about his next steps. "President Trump, unfortunately, in my opinion, is still choosing the strategy of putting more pressure on the Ukrainian side," he told Reuters.
The Ukrainian leader has repeatedly reiterated that solid security guarantees from international partners are needed to ensure that Russia will not resume hostilities in the future if a peace agreement is reached.
“The Americans are ready to finalize these guarantees at a high level as soon as Ukraine is ready to withdraw from Donbas,“ he said, warning that such a withdrawal would compromise the security of both Ukraine and Europe because it would mean giving up strong defensive positions in the region to Russia.
In January, Zelensky said that the document on security guarantees between Ukraine and the United States was “100% ready” and expects to be signed.
Yesterday, after talks between Ukrainian and American representatives in Miami, he indicated that there is still work to be done.
Zelensky, who gave the interview from the presidential complex in central Kiev, said that Russia, which consistently wants territories in Donbas still under Ukrainian control, is betting that Washington will lose interest in the negotiations and withdraw.
Moscow's forces are slowly advancing on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine.
Military analysts have commented that the complete conquest of the region, including the so-called A fortified belt of cities heavily fortified by the Ukrainian army will take several years and significant manpower.
Following the massive Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities earlier today, Zelensky thanked the Trump administration for continuing to deliver Patriot missile defense systems, despite increased demand for these weapons due to the conflict in the Middle East.
Ukrainian authorities have previously expressed fears that deliveries of the US-made Patriot missiles - the only missiles capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles - will stop because of the war with Iran.
“Our deliveries have not stopped. I am very grateful to President Trump and his team,” Zelensky said. “But the deliveries of Patriot” "They are not as big as we need," he added.
Ukraine is also making progress with its own production of long-range missiles and drones, which allows it to carry out attacks deep into Russian territory in response to shelling of Ukrainian cities, the Ukrainian president said.
Russia is trying to blackmail the United States by offering to stop providing intelligence to Iran if Washington cuts off Ukraine's access to its intelligence in return, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as quoted by Reuters.
On Monday, the Ukrainian leader said Ukraine had "irrefutable evidence" that Russia was continuing to provide intelligence to Iran.
"According to reports from our intelligence services, Russia will stop providing intelligence to Iran if America stops sharing intelligence with Ukraine. Isn't this blackmail?" "Of course," Zelensky stressed.
Russia has denied allegations that it has been helping Iran in its month-long conflict with the United States and Israel.
Washington said earlier this month that it had received assurances from Moscow that Russia was not providing assistance to Iran.
Ukraine, which has been under constant attack by Iranian "Shahed" drones since Russia began its invasion in 2022, is helping several Gulf states - including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar - to deal with drone attacks on their territory, Zelensky added.
He expressed hope that Ukraine would be able to conclude long-term agreements with some Gulf states that would increase funds for the production of Ukrainian drone interceptors or would lead to Kiev receiving air defense missiles from the stocks of these countries.