President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that he and US president Donald Trump should meet to discuss an accord granting Washington access to Ukrainian natural resources before any meeting between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
To make an agreement on Ukrainian security concerns, "we need to meet and talk about it. I think that this meeting should be fair, which means before Trump meets Putin," Zelensky said during a press conference in Kyiv.
He further stated that only a real authoritarian would be offended by US Trump's recent characterisation of the Ukrainian leader as an illegitimate “dictator”.
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“I certainly would not describe the words Trump used as a compliment. One would be offended by the word dictator if he was a dictator. I'm not. I'm the legally elected president.”
He claimed that a deal between Kyiv and Washington about US access to Ukrainian natural resources in return for security support was getting closer.
At a press conference, he declared, “We are making progress,” adding that Ukrainian and US officials had communicated over the agreement earlier in the day.
He hopes Trump would "understand" his stance and provide specific security assurances in order to assist Kyiv in defending itself against the Russian invasion. "Security guarantees from Trump are much needed."
Ahead of the third anniversary of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian President hoped meetings with visiting foreign leaders on Monday would mark a “turning point”.
“We have an important meeting tomorrow, a summit. Maybe it will be a turning point, we'll see. We will have 13 leaders offline. There will also be 24 leaders online.”
