Zelenskyy on his conversation with Trump: Security guarantees are definitely priority for Ukraine

Zelenskyy gives details of conversation with Trump on February 13

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has emphasized that the country will not agree to any bilateral peace talks without Ukraine's participation.

He said this during a visit to the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant, Censor.NET reports citing Suspilne.

"I make this very clear to our partners: any bilateral talks about Ukraine—I'm not talking about other topics, they are free to discuss those—any bilateral talks about Ukraine without us will not be accepted," Zelenskyy said.

He emphasized that it is crucial for Ukraine that Europeans are also at the negotiating table.

According to the head of state, today, Ukraine and Europe bear 80% of the cost of the war, while the United States contributes 20%.

Speaking about his conversation with Trump, Zelenskyy said it was "a really good almost hour-long conversation."

Zelenskyy also commented on his conversation with Donald Trump yesterday.

The President said it was a "really good almost hour-long conversation." He clarified that during the conversation, Trump said that it seemed to him that Russian dictator Vladimir "Putin wants peace and wants the war to end."

"And he said: "I know what you want too". I told him that you talk to Putin as the leader of the Russian state, and I talk to you and think of him as an enemy. And I think I'm in a bigger reality, I said, and that's why I don't trust," the president said.

According to Zelenskyy, he emphasized to Trump that everyone wants to force Putin to end the war fairly for Ukraine, but he does not really believe that it is so very easy to do.

"That's why I said that security guarantees are definitely a priority for us. And without you, we can't see what kind of guarantees they are, let's talk," the President of Ukraine said.

Speaking about the ceasefire, Zelenskyy said that "we have already had one ceasefire: a corridor that was essentially a ceasefire on the water in the Black Sea."

He also commented on Trump's conversation with Putin.

Zelenskyy noted that Trump explained to him that he wanted to talk to the two presidents at the same time.

"That is, in the conversation, he did not say that Putin and Russia were a priority, and today we trust these words... And so I do not accept this call that it was a priority that he talked to Russia first, although it is really not very pleasant in any case, because you know how Ukrainian society, how all of us, and Europeans react, that Ukraine is first and foremost, and nothing can be about Ukraine without Ukraine," Zelenskyy said.

The President also added that the date of his meeting with Trump has not yet been agreed upon.