Ukraine to hold 'in-depth' talks on foreign troop contingent Friday, Zelenskiy says

By Dan Peleschuk and Yuliia Dysa

KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine will hold in-depth talks on Friday with a small group of foreign countries about contributing forces to a contingent that would act as a security guarantee for Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian leader told a news conference with Germany's foreign minister that he was awaiting "more concrete" answers from Kyiv's allies on their readiness to participate in such a force, an initiative Russia strongly opposes.

"As far as the matter of a contingent goes, we will have a meeting on Friday. It will be a meeting of our military teams, several countries, a narrow circle of countries that will be ready to deploy a contingent in one form or another," he said.

Zelenskiy said that the contingent would include a land component, an air component and a presence at sea.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to end the three-year-old conflict in Ukraine that began with Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Washington last week brokered a halt between the two countries on strikes against each other's energy infrastructure.

The U.S. has hoped to reach a full ceasefire followed by a lasting peace settlement. But an agreement appears distant despite Trump's promises to bring the conflict to a quick end.

Kyiv's European allies have expressed willingness to contribute troops to a force that would provide security guarantees to Ukraine under a ceasefire and to strengthen Ukraine's military long term.

"This will be the first in-depth meeting, (before that) there were consultations. I think we will see some clarifications and some details," Zelenskiy said of Friday's meeting.

He added that it was not only the contingent under discussion. "It is very important how the future of the Ukrainian army will look like," he said.

A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday that British, French and Ukrainian military leaders would meet in the coming days to build on "real momentum" in efforts to boost Ukraine's security.

The Ukrainian leader also used the news conference to urge the United States to ramp up sanctions on Russia for what he said were violations of the ceasefire on energy infrastructure.

He said that the United States had told the Ukrainians privately that it had seen Russian violations of the agreement, which emerged from talks held in Saudi Arabia last week.

Russia has itself accused the Ukrainians of continuing to strike energy infrastructure, something Kyiv denies.

Trump rapidly reoriented American policy on the war since taking office in January, resuming direct dialogue with Russia, while at times piling pressure on Ukraine, for instance by temporarily cutting arms supplies and intelligence sharing.

This week, the United States proposed a dramatically expanded minerals deal with Ukraine, a summary of which seen by Reuters suggested that Washington was demanding all Ukraine's natural resources income for years.

Zelenskiy, who wants the White House as a close partner and has been cautious in his public pronouncements on the deal, told reporters on Tuesday that Ukrainian and American teams were working on a draft.

But Ukraine, he said, would have to nominate a legal company to work on the draft, a decision that would be made in the coming days.

(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk and Yuliia Dysa; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by David Goodman and Cynthia Osterman)