Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday he had received no “unequivocal answer” from European allies about how they would defend Ukraine in the event Russia attacked again should a deal to end the war be reached.
On Tuesday, European leaders and US envoys announced that they had agreed key security guarantees for Kyiv, including a US-led monitoring mechanism and a European multinational force that would be deployed if a ceasefire could be reached.
But when asked if he was sure that European allies would step in and defend his country in the event of another Russian invasion, Zelensky said Wednesday he had no “clear” answer on that.
“I personally very much want to get a very simple answer: yes, if there is aggression again, all partners will give a strong response to the Russians. And that’s the exact question I put to all our partners. And so far I haven’t received a clear, unequivocal answer,” Zelensky told reporters.
He said there was “political will” from Kyiv’s allies to “give us strong security guarantees”.
“But until we have such security guarantees — legal ones, backed by parliaments, backed by the United States Congress — we cannot answer this question.”
Envoys from the United States and Ukraine on Wednesday were continuing talks in Paris on the issues that Zelensky said were the most difficult: the fate of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and control of territory in eastern Ukraine.
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