President Zelensky: Do not accept agreements reached behind Ukraine's back

(Dan Tri) - President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that Ukraine will never accept any peace agreement reached behind Kiev's back.

US Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov attend a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, Germany on February 14 (Photo: Reuters).

"Ukraine will never accept any agreement reached behind our backs and without our participation. The same rule should apply to the whole of Europe," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference on February 15.

President Zelensky's statement came after a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin this week. This was the first phone call between US and Russian leaders since Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine in February 2022.

President Trump said he and President Putin expect to meet in the near future, possibly in Saudi Arabia.

President Zelensky said he felt "not very comfortable" that President Trump spoke to President Putin before calling him.

Amid concerns that the US could negotiate with Russia over Ukraine without Kiev's participation, Mr Zelensky said he wanted a joint plan with Washington before any peace talks began.

Ukraine has repeatedly said it wants to work with the United States and Europe to come up with a common strategy ahead of any meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin.

According to President Zelensky, he believes it would be a "dangerous" situation if the Trump-Putin meeting took place before he and President Trump met.

President Zelensky confirmed that Ukraine was not invited to attend discussions between delegations from Washington and Moscow, scheduled to take place in Saudi Arabia next week.

"We don't have any papers, no invitations. It would be unusual if there weren't any negotiations between us and our strategic partners before that," Zelensky said.

Fox News quoted a senior Ukrainian official as saying that Ukraine "was neither invited nor informed" about upcoming talks between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia.

According to Politico , “there are no plans for representatives from other European powers to join the talks,” while Bloomberg said European officials were not even informed of the plan.

On February 12, President Trump declared that Ukraine joining NATO and recovering all of its territory was “unrealistic.” Some European allies are concerned that they and Ukraine could be left out of the US-Russia talks on a solution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In response to these concerns, President Trump and the Kremlin pledged that the talks would include Ukraine.

Meanwhile, President Zelensky said he had no intention of negotiating with any Russian representative other than his counterpart Putin after he and Mr. Trump had prepared a joint plan to end the war.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-gioi/tong-thong-zelensky-khong-chap-nhan-thoa-thuan-dat-duoc-sau-lung-ukraine-20250216082825839.htm