Reuters. Russia is pleased about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy statement that the U.S. is making its offer of security guarantees conditional on Kyiv ceding all of the country's eastern region of Donbas to Russia, a senior official said on Thursday (March 26).
Zelenskiy's comment in an interview with Reuters "can't help but make us happy," Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev said.
The U.S. has made its offer of security guarantees needed for a peace deal in Ukraine conditional on Kyiv ceding all of the country's eastern region of Donbas to Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday (March 25).
With the United States now focused on its own conflict with Iran, President Donald Trump is applying pressure on Ukraine in an effort to bring a quick end to the four-year war triggered by Russia's 2022 invasion.
"He certainly wants to end the war and for this to happen quickly," Zelenskiy said of Trump. "In this situation, ‘quickly’ means at someone’s expense... I’m not letting this end at the expense of the Ukrainians," he added.
The Ukrainian leader has repeatedly said that robust security guarantees from international partners are needed to ensure that Russia did not restart hostilities in the future, if a peace deal was agreed.
"The Americans are prepared to finalise these guarantees at a high level once Ukraine is ready to withdraw from Donbas," he said, warning that such a withdrawal would compromise the security of both Ukraine and, by extension, Europe, because it would cede the region's strong defensive positions to Russia.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
