(Updated with statement on foreign soldiers)
Volodimir Zelensky said Tuesday he was working on a meeting with Donald Trump to discuss a peace deal with Russia, while calling on European leaders to do more to defend the continent.
The Ukrainian president delivered a speech at the Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, before answering questions the day after the inauguration of the US president, who has said in the past that he would quickly end the war in Ukraine, without specifying how.
Volodimir Zelensky assured that Kyiv would not agree during negotiations to radically reduce the size of its army, predicting that Vladimir Putin would demand that it be reduced to only a fifth of its current size.
“This is what he wants. We will not allow this to happen,” he said.
Asked about the security guarantees that Kyiv could request, and in particular the possible deployment of a European peacekeeping force, the Ukrainian president estimated that it should include “at least 200,000 men”. “It’s the minimum, otherwise it’s useless,” he said.
-In his speech earlier, Volodimir Zelensky called on Europe to become a strong global actor, capable of guaranteeing peace and security for itself and others.
Echoing Donald Trump, who called on NATO members to significantly increase their military spending, he estimated that the Europeans had lost influence with the United States because Washington judges that the contribution of its allies to global security is insufficient.
“Does anyone in the United States fear that Europe will one day abandon them, that it will cease to be their ally? The answer is no,” stressed Volodimir Zelensky.
(Reporting by Alessandra Galloni and Yuliia Dysa, written by Tom Balmforth; French version by Mara Vîlcu and Tangi Salaün, edited by Blandine Hénault and Kate Entringer)
