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Zelensky says he needs security guarantees from Trump before holding talks with Putin

Zelensky hinted that talks may be held even if Ukraine fails to retake land it used to hold before 2022, a condition Kiev previously insisted was necessary

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky says he needs new US President Donald Trump to provide security guarantees for Ukraine before talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin can commence.

"I will do everything to bring this closer. <...> If he [Trump] can guarantee this strong and irreversible security for Ukraine, we will move along this diplomatic path," Zelensky told Bloomberg in an interview.

Zelensky hinted that talks may be held even if Ukraine fails to retake land it used to hold before 2022, a condition Kiev previously insisted was necessary. "There may be various scenarios as it happens in life. <…> And this depends on the United States, this depends on the new [US] administration, this depends on the European Union <…>, and this somehow depends on the Global South, too," he argued.

Senior Russian officials have repeatedly expressed their readiness to negotiate a way out of the Ukraine conflict. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said Zelensky’s ban on any negotiations with Putin and Ukrainian initiatives showing how detached from reality Kiev currently is are among major obstacles to peace talks.

Putin has stated that now that Zelensky’s legitimacy as Ukrainian president has expired, Moscow would need to search for a legitimate authority to sign legally binding agreements with. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stressed that even as Russia could engage with Ukraine, any deals that come out of the talks must be signed by a legitimate Ukrainian government.

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