President Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that at least 200,000 European troops should be deployed to guarantee Ukraine’s security in the event of a truce with Russia and avoid a new invasion, according to a video released by kyiv this Wednesday, January 22 .
“200,000 is a minimum. It’s a minimum. Otherwise, it’s nothing,” the Ukrainian president declared Tuesday during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland), in an interview shared on the presidency website the next day. This is the first time that a senior Ukrainian official has publicly mentioned the number of such a contingent, although this project has been discussed behind the scenes for several months between kyiv and its Western allies.
President Emmanuel Macron had put forward the idea of stationing Western troops in Ukraine to supervise a possible ceasefire agreement with Russia, which launched the invasion of its Ukrainian neighbor three years ago and now occupies Today about 20% of its territories in the East and South.
For weeks, speculation about possible talks to end the conflict has been increasing, against a backdrop of questions about the position that the new American president Donald Trump will adopt, while the United States is the main provider of aid military and financial in kyiv. Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened Russia with new sanctions if Moscow does not negotiate an end to the war against Ukraine. “It is time to FIND AN AGREEMENT”, wrote the American president on his Truth Social network, assuring: “I am not trying to harm Russia. I love the Russian people and I have always had a very good relationship with President Putin.”
For his part, from Davos, Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that the American president could apply “total sanctions” against Russia, in particular its energy sector and “give Ukraine all the weapons it asks for” to threaten Vladimir Putin . “Except of course nuclear weapons, we are sane people,” added the Ukrainian president.
“Very difficult” for Trump
Even before his inauguration on Monday, Donald Trump affirmed that he was preparing a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to “put an end” to this conflict. “I am therefore not surprised that the United States has contacts with Putin” but Ukraine must be “a priority” for the American president, said Volodymyr Zelensky. “Because we are allies of the United States. We are the victim. Putin is the occupier. And we did not start the war, he started it,” he argued .
Ending the war which has left tens of thousands dead on each side and ravaged Ukraine “will be very difficult for President Trump”, warned Volodymyr Zelensky. “We must all understand that Putin does not want to end the war” for lack of having achieved “its essential target: the independence of Ukraine,” launched Volodymyr Zelensky. “Destroying it is his dream.”
Ukraine “will not recognize” the occupied territories as Russian, “even if all the allies unite” to demand it, he insisted, while suggesting that it could concede them for a time in order to stop hostilities. “There will be no pardon, no legal recognition, but we must do everything to end the hot phase of the war,” Volodymyr Zelensky said.