From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
US veep Vance to meet Ukrainian leader Zelensky on Munich confab sidelines
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet US Vice President JD Vance on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, the Ukrainian leader’s spokesman tells AFP, as Washington pushes for an end to the nearly three-year war with Russia.
US President Donald Trump also confirms that he will soon despatch his special envoy Keith Kellogg, who is tasked with drawing up a proposal to halt the fighting, to Ukraine.
Trump is pressing for a swift end to the conflict, while Zelensky is calling for tough security guarantees from Washington as part of any deal with Russia.
Zelensky’s spokesman Sergiy Nikiforov tells AFP the meeting with Vance will take place Friday on the sidelines of the Munich conference.
A source in the Ukrainian president’s office says Kellogg would arrive in Ukraine on February 20, without detailing where in the country he would visit.
His trip would come just days before the three-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion on February 24.
Zelensky called Monday for “real peace and effective security guarantees” for Ukraine.
“Security of people, security of our state, security of economic relations and, of course, our resource sustainability: not only for Ukraine, but for the entire free world,” he said.
“All of this is being decided now,” he added in a video address published on social media.
Zelensky said Monday that a meeting with US President Donald Trump was also being arranged, but that a date had not yet been fixed.
Trump said last week that he would “probably” meet Zelensky in the coming days, but ruled out personally travelling to Kyiv.
