Zelensky calls for more Western air defense systems to ‘save lives’

KYIV/BRUSSELS: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Ukraine would be involved in peace talks with Russia, after Kyiv and its European allies warned against a “dirty deal” between Washington and Moscow following Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said Ukraine would have a seat at the table during any peace negotiations with Russia over ending the war.
“They’re part of it. We would have Ukraine, and we have Russia, and we’ll have other people involved, a lot of people,” Trump said.
Asked whether he trusts Putin, he said: “I believe that he would like to see something happen. I trust him on this subject.”
The US president also said Russia should be readmitted to the Group of Seven nations.
Russia’s financial markets soared and the price of Ukraine’s debt rose at the prospect of the first talks in years to end Europe’s deadliest war since World War Two.
Trump’s unilateral overture to Putin on Wednesday, accompanied by apparent concessions on Ukraine’s principal demands, raised alarm for both Kyiv and the European allies in NATO who said they feared the White House might make a deal without them.
“We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. He said Putin aimed to make his negotiations bilateral with the United States, and it was important that this not be allowed.
The Kremlin said plans were under way for Putin and Trump to meet, possibly in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine would “of course” participate in peace talks in some way, but there would also be a bilateral negotiation track between the United States and Russia, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The United Arab Emirates has told the United States it wants to host talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported.
European officials took an exceptionally firm line in public toward Trump’s peace overture, saying any agreement would be impossible to implement unless they and the Ukrainians were included in negotiating it.
“Any quick fix is a dirty deal,” European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. She also denounced the apparent concessions offered in advance.
“Why are we giving them (Russia) everything that they want even before the negotiations have been started?” said Kallas. “It’s appeasement. It has never worked.”
A European diplomatic source said ministers had agreed to engage in a “frank and demanding dialogue” with US officials — some of the strongest language in the diplomatic lexicon — at the annual Munich Security Conference beginning on Friday.

‘BEST NEGOTIATOR ON THE PLANET’
On Wednesday, Trump made the first publicly acknowledged White House call with Putin since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, and then followed it up with a call to Zelensky. Trump said he believed both men wanted peace.
But the Trump administration also said openly for the first time that it was unrealistic for Ukraine to expect to return to its 2014 borders or join the NATO alliance as part of any agreement, and that no US troops would join any security force in Ukraine that might be set up to guarantee a ceasefire.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who unveiled the new policy in remarks at NATO headquarters, said on Thursday the world was fortunate to have Trump, the “best negotiator on the planet, bringing two sides together to find a negotiated peace.”
Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Moscow was “impressed” by Trump’s willingness to seek a settlement.
Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and its proxies captured territory in the east in 2014, before its full-scale invasion in 2022 when it captured more land in the east and south.
Ukraine pushed Russian invaders back from the outskirts of Kyiv and recaptured swathes of territory in 2022, but its outmanned and outgunned forces have slowly ceded more land since a failed Ukrainian counter-offensive in 2023.
Relentless fighting has killed or injured hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides — there is no reliable death toll — and pulverised Ukrainian cities.
Meanwhile, there has been no narrowing of positions on either side. Moscow demands Kyiv cede more land and be rendered permanently neutral in any peace deal; Kyiv says Russian troops must withdraw and it must win security guarantees comparable to NATO membership to prevent future attacks.
Ukrainian officials have acknowledged in the past that full NATO membership may be out of reach in the short term, and that a hypothetical peace deal could leave some occupied land in Russian hands.
But Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv remained committed to joining NATO, which he said was the simplest and least expensive way the West could provide the security guarantees needed to ensure peace.
“All our allies have said the path of Ukraine toward NATO is irreversible,” said Sybiha.
NATO’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte, a former Dutch Prime Minister adept at smoothing over differences between Europe and Washington, said it was important Moscow understand the West remained united, noting that Ukraine had never been promised a peace deal would include alliance membership.
Some Ukrainians saw Trump’s moves as a betrayal. Myroslava Lesko, 23, standing near a sea of flags in downtown Kyiv honoring fallen troops, said: “It truly looks as if they want to surrender Ukraine, because I don’t see any benefits for our country from these negotiations or Trump’s rhetoric.”
However, Ukrainians have been worn out by three years of war, and many say they are prepared to sacrifice some aims to achieve peace.
Many were frustrated by US policy under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, who vowed to help Ukraine win all its land back and provided tens of billions of dollars worth of military hardware, but only after delays that Ukrainian commanders say let Russian forces regroup.
Trump, at least, was being forthright about the limits of US support, said Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics.
“The difference between Biden and Trump is that Trump says out loud what Biden was thinking and doing about Ukraine,” he said on social media.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration has asked US embassies worldwide to prepare for staff cuts, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday, as part of the Republican president’s effort to overhaul the US diplomatic corps.
The sources said some embassies had been asked to look into reducing both US staff as well as locally-employed staff by 10 percent each, with a list of the workforce due to be sent to the State Department by Friday, which will then determine further actions.
US embassies around the world employ both diplomats and local staff. Most embassy staff come from the host country, according to the National Museum of American Diplomacy.
Separately, a US official said that around 60 contractors at the State Department’s bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor had been terminated in recent weeks and that there was a possibility of further cuts in other bureaus.
ABC News first reported that US embassies had been told to start planning for staff reductions.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The moves come as Trump tries to reshape the diplomatic corps, issuing on Wednesday an executive order directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to revamp the foreign service to ensure “faithful and effective implementation” of his foreign policy agenda.
The order, which follows efforts to dismantle the US Agency for International Development, comes as Trump makes changes to ensure US foreign policy is aligned with his “America First” agenda. He has also repeatedly pledged to “clean out the deep state” by firing bureaucrats that he deems disloyal.
The order, which was titled “One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations” also says failure to implement the president’s agenda is grounds for professional discipline, which may result in firing personnel.
“The Secretary must maintain an exceptional workforce of patriots to implement this policy effectively,” the order read.
The order also directs a potential revamp of the Foreign Affairs Manual, a comprehensive set of policies and procedures that lay out how the State Department operates, at home and abroad.
Just hours after taking office on January 20, Trump ordered a freeze of most US foreign aid to ensure it was aligned with his “America First” policies. USAID, the chief US humanitarian agency, became the first target of the effort led by billionaire Elon Musk, a close Trump ally, to reduce the size of the US government.
Since January 20, Musk has dispatched members of his Department of Government Efficiency to scrutinize sensitive personnel and payment information in government computer systems. Aside from USAID, he led the drive to also dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that protects Americans from unscrupulous lenders.