Zelenskiy wants higher-level talks on security guarantees next week

By Yuliia Dysa and Dan Peleschuk

KYIV (Reuters) -President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged allies on Friday to swiftly elevate talks on security guarantees for Ukraine to the level of leaders, as European Union defence ministers pledged to train Kyiv's troops on Ukrainian soil in the event of a truce.

Kyiv is engaged in a diplomatic push to try and bring to an end Russia's war, now in its fourth year, and to secure critical commitments from its partners to fend off any future invasion.

The Ukrainian president said he expected to continue talks with European leaders next week on "NATO-like" commitments to protect Ukraine, adding that U.S. President Donald Trump should also be involved.

"We need the architecture to be clear to everyone," he said, adding that he wanted to tell Trump "how we see it".

Zelenskiy spoke shortly before his chief of staff was due to discuss with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff at a meeting in New York the need to increase pressure on Moscow.

Ukrainian officials say Russia, which has continued attacking cities with missiles and drones and is pressing a battlefield offensive, has no interest in seeking peace.

"Russia is failing to fulfil anything necessary to end the war and is clearly dragging out hostilities," Yermak wrote on X.

Diplomatic efforts to end Russia's full-scale invasion have so far yielded little, even after Trump met separately with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders earlier this month.

Zelenskiy also raised Trump's self-imposed deadline for deciding on new measures against Russia if President Vladimir Putin fails to commit to a one-on-one meeting with the Ukrainian leader.

"Two weeks will be on Monday. And we will remind everybody," he said.

Russia has said there is no agenda for a potential summit between Putin and Zelenskiy.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Svyrydenko, also visiting New York, is expected to meet representatives of U.S. business to discuss investments in Ukraine, Zelenskiy added.

Officials in Kyiv see U.S. funding, particularly as part of a critical minerals deal struck earlier this year, as central to securing a durable peace settlement.

EU SUPPORT

European Union defence ministers meeting in Copenhagen on Friday expressed "broad support" for expanding the bloc's military training mission to operate inside Ukraine, the EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said.

Trump, who has in recent weeks appeared more willing to support Kyiv's defence against Russia, has said Europe must provide the lion's share of any effort to bolster Ukraine's security.

"The EU has already trained over 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers," Kallas wrote on X. "We must be ready to do more."

Russia has consistently opposed the presence of any NATO troops in Ukraine.

Zelenskiy said he wanted allies to ratify any security guarantees through their parliaments, invoking a 1994 deal in which Kyiv gave up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security assurances that proved insufficient to deter Russia.

"We want legally binding security guarantees. We don't want (another) Budapest Memorandum."

Germany and France on Friday outlined plans to cooperate more deeply on security, including a missile early warning system, following a meeting between Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Emmanuel Macron.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa and Anastasiia Malenko; Additional reporting by Andrew Gray; Writing by Dan PeleschukEditing by Tomasz Janowski, Sharon Singleton and Gareth Jones)