(Reuters) -Following are key quotes from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s press conference after meeting U.S. President Donald Trump and European leaders in Washington on Monday. Translation by Reuters.
ON MEETING WITH TRUMP AND EUROPEAN LEADERS:
“I would like to thank President Trump for this meeting. It was the best of our meetings – and that is important. In addition to the fact that we discussed many issues, it was a long and detailed conversation.
“Today was an important step — a demonstration of true unity between Europe and the United States. The leaders personally came to support Ukraine and to discuss everything that brings us closer to real peace and a reliable security architecture that will protect Ukraine and all of Europe.”
ON DISCUSSION OF UKRAINE’S TERRITORY:
“The issue of territory – I had a long conversation about it with a map of Ukraine.
“I was even able to show many things on the map to all of our American colleagues … I even debated a bit about the percentages shown on the map, because I know very well the actual percentages of temporarily occupied territories. But nevertheless, it wasn’t an argument – it was truly a warm, good, substantive conversation.
“It seems to me that the president heard me (regarding the territories).
“The question of territories is something we will leave between me and Putin.”
ON SECURITY GUARANTEES:
“We talked about security guarantees. This is the key issue – the starting point for ending the war.
“It is important that the United States of America is sending a clear signal that they will be among the countries that will help, coordinate, and also participate in providing security guarantees. I believe this is a major step forward. I can’t yet say how everything will unfold, all the details, but it’s already important that there is political will and political decisions.
“Security guarantees will probably be ‘unpacked’ by our partners, and more and more details will emerge. All of this will somehow be formalised on paper within the next week to 10 days.
“(A part of security guarantees) is the weapons package — a package of American weapons that we currently don’t have. This includes, above all, aircraft, air defence systems, and so on.
“There indeed is a package with our (Ukrainian) proposals worth $90 billion.
“And we have agreements with the U.S. president that when our export opens, they will buy Ukrainian drones. This is important for us.”
WHAT’S NEXT, POSSIBLE MEETINGS WITH RUSSIA:
“After our joint meeting and coordination on how we will work on security guarantees, the president of the United States contacted the Russian side, and they discussed what kind of diplomatic assurances might be possible. Russia proposed first a bilateral meeting between Ukraine and Russia, and then a trilateral one.
“We are ready for any formats at the level of leaders, because only at the level of leaders can all these complex and painful issues be resolved, the most important and the most painful for us. I confirmed — and all European leaders supported me — that we are ready for a bilateral meeting with Putin. And after that, I expect a trilateral meeting but that all will depend on how the bilateral meeting goes.”
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa in Kyiv and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Michael Perry)
