Ukrainian president says Putin only seeking ceasefire to lift sanctions and regroup as he prepares to address Munich security conference.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned Ukraine has little chance of surviving Russia’s assault without US support, after the phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin earlier in the week.
The Ukrainian president said in an interview on NBC Meet the Press, which will be broadcast on Sunday:.
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.”.
The widow of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has warned there is “no point trying to negotiate” with Putin on Ukraine. “Just remember: he will lie,” Yulia Navalnaya told the Munich Security Conference on Friday. “If he remains in power, he will find a way to break the agreement. If he loses power, the agreement will become meaningless.”.
The talks between Zelenskyy and Vance ended without an announcement of a critical minerals deal that is central to Kyiv’s push to win Trump’s backing. Kyiv came back to the US earlier with a revised draft agreement of the deal that could open up its vast resources of key minerals to US investment. “Our teams will continue to work on the document,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he assured his Ukrainian counterpart that it’s “Ukrainians alone who can drive the discussions for a solid and lasting peace” with Russia. “We will help them in this endeavour,” Macron wrote on X on Friday after a phone call with Zelenskyy, adding if Trump “can truly convince president Putin to stop the aggression against Ukraine, that is great news”.
A Russian drone carrying a high-explosive warhead struck the protective containment shell of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Zelenskyy said the damage to the shelter was “significant” and had started a fire, but he added that radiation levels at the plant had not increased. The SBU security service said the Iranian-designed Shahed drone intended to hit the reactor enclosure.
