Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused the U.S. of focusing on Ukrainian concessions to bring an end to the war, rather than pressing Russia.
His comments came as Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. prepared for a further round of trilateral talks next week, and after Trump urged Zelenskyy on Friday to “get moving,” saying that Russia was ready to make a deal.
“The Americans often return to the topic of concessions,” Zelenskyy said as he addressed key allies at the Munich Security Conference. “Too often those concessions are discussed in the context only of Ukraine, not Russia.”
Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. held their first trilateral talks on a peace deal last month, and further talks are set to take place on Tuesday.
“We truly hope that the trilateral meetings next week will be serious, substantive, helpful for all of us, but honestly, sometimes it feels like the sides are talking about completing different things,” Zelenskyy added.
Trump told reporters on Friday: “Russia wants to make a deal, and Zelenskyy’s gonna have to get moving. Otherwise, he’s going to miss a great opportunity.”
Conference moderator Christiane Amanpour put Trump’s latest comments to the Ukrainian president in a Q&A after his speech, asking if he was feeling the pressure.
“A little bit,” Zelenskyy replied.
Zelenskyy later met with a bipartisan group of U.S. senators.
He said in a post on X that they discussed security guarantees and increasing pressure on Russia through sanctions, adding: “I thank the Senators for their unwavering bipartisan support for Ukraine and Ukrainians.”
Hours before Zelenskyy’s speech, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the conference that the “hardest questions” still need to be answered before peace can be achieved.
“We don’t know the Russians are serious about ending the war. They say they are,” Rubio said in a short Q&A after his speech, adding: “We’re going to continue to test it.”
He added: “What we can’t answer, but we’re going to test, is whether there is an outcome that Ukraine can live with and that Russia will accept, and I would say it’s been elusive up to this point.”
While officials described the trilateral talks in January as constructive, major obstacles remain, chief among them the future of territory in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow has shown little sign of softening its demands.
The Kremlin said in January that Kyiv’s military would have to pull out of the region for any deal to end the war.
President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said before the talks that the negotiations were “down to one issue.” While he did not elaborate, many took it to mean territorial concessions by Ukraine.
“The good news is that the issues that need to be confronted to end this war have been narrowed,” Rubio said in Munich. “The bad news is they’ve been narrowed to the hardest questions to answer and work remains to be done on that front.”
Russia currently occupies about 20% of Ukraine’s national territory, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region seized before the 2022 invasion. Polls show that the majority of Ukrainians oppose a deal that hands Moscow land.
“I don’t think anybody in this room would be against a negotiated settlement to this war, so long as the conditions are just and sustainable, and that’s what we aim to achieve,” Rubio added.
Zelenskyy said in Munich that it was an illusion to believe the war could be ended by dividing Ukraine, and that he thinks it can be ended with dignity for his country.
Peace can only be built on clear security guarantees, he added, saying that where there is no clear security system, “war always returns.”
“Europe needs a real common defense policy, just as it already has so much in common in the economy, in law and in social policy,” he said, before finishing his speech and asking the crowd: “Please pay attention to Ukraine.”
