Zelensky Rules Out China As One Of Postwar Security Guarantors

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy pushed back against Russia’s idea to add China as a security guarantor in the event of a ceasefire.

“We don’t need guarantors who don’t help Ukraine, and didn’t help Ukraine at the moment when we really needed it,” Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv. “We need security guarantees only from those countries that are ready to help us.” 

The Ukrainian president’s words come after his meeting on Monday with Donald Trump and European leaders at White House that produced a firmer commitment by the US to security guarantees for Kyiv. Trump ruled out sending soldiers to Ukraine, but said the US might provide air support. European leaders are currently discussing what their own contribution might look like.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that reliable security guarantees for Ukraine can’t work without Russia and could also involve China, mentioning an accord drafted in Istanbul in the early stages of Moscow’s full-scale invasion. That accord was rejected by Kyiv, as it would have given Russia a veto over attempts by other guarantors to come to Ukraine’s aid if attacked.

Russia and China declared a “no limits” partnership just before Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Beijing has stopped short of providing lethal military assistance, though Chinese components have been found in Russian weapons. President Xi Jinping’s government since provided Moscow with diplomatic and economic support, of which Zelenskiy has voiced criticism.

Zelenskiy said he’d heard “positive signals” from Trump about a US role in security guarantees. Following the talks in Washington, security and military chiefs of Ukraine’s allies have started to work on the “architecture of future guarantees,” he said, which he said he expected to be clearer within seven to 10 days.

Following Trump’s push for a trilateral meeting, Zelenskiy also reiterated that he is ready to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, but not anywhere.

“There can be no meeting in Moscow,” Zelenskiy said. He also pushed back against suggestions to hold the meeting in Budapest, describing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s policy as not against Ukraine but “against supporting Ukraine.”

Instead the meeting should be held in “neutral Europe,” Zelenskiy said, suggesting non-NATO members Switzerland and Austria or Turkey, a NATO member state and the site of previous summits to broker an end to Russia’s war.

Amid Trump’s diplomatic push for an end to the war, Russia attacked cities in western Ukraine along the border with Poland and Hungary with missiles and drones overnight. The strikes killed one person in Lviv and damaged dozens of buildings, regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said on Telegram Thursday morning. Neighboring Poland scrambled jets in response.

Russia also hit the city of Mukachevo in Ukraine’s Zakarpattya region with missiles, injuring at least 12 civilians and damaging a local factory, according to the regional governor’s statement on Facebook. It was the first attack of such scale on the city, located 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border with Hungary.