Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has outlined three possible security models for the post-war period: Nato membership, bilateral guarantees from the US, or a Europe-led coalition of more than 30 states with American support. He said this in a detailed interview with presenter Alla Mazur for the Ukrainian television channel TSN, as the Kyiv Post reported on Tuesday. According to the Berliner Zeitung, the interview was broadcast on Sunday.
Nato membership remains his preferred option, Zelensky said. Should accession not be possible, direct US guarantees could represent a compromise. What matters is what Washington concretely promises. “What are the US ready to do? In what number? Air or ground operations, if Ukraine needs to be defended quickly?” Zelensky asked. The details would have to be set down in a binding agreement and must not remain merely political assurances between presidents. “Congress must vote for the security guarantees,” he said, rejecting an arrangement modelled on the Budapest Memorandum, which did not prevent Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
What Zelensky rules out – and what he leaves open
According to him, central questions remained open: whether US troops or military facilities could be stationed in Ukraine and how Washington would react to a renewed Russian attack. The same uncertainty applied to a European military presence, which Moscow has repeatedly rejected.
The president rejected Russian conditions. “We are not trading anything for anything. We are ready for talks,” he said. A limitation of the Ukrainian army and a neutral status for Ukraine were “not up for discussion”, Zelensky said, also according to the Berliner Zeitung, which reported on the interview. Only the heads of state and government could speak about territories, while technical delegations could discuss other questions of an agreement. On the size of the military, he said: “If I have enough money, I want to maintain an army of 800,000.” He would negotiate its size neither with Russia nor with the US.
According to him, US negotiators had submitted several proposals after talks in Oslo on 20 October, which US special envoy Steve Witkoff then handed over to Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg. It was not a finished peace plan that had been presented to Putin for approval, Zelensky stressed. “Russia does not decide.”
Trilateral talks in November, ceasefire on energy demanded
According to Zelensky, the US informed Kyiv that Putin had in principle agreed to trilateral talks with Ukraine and the US in November. Abu Dhabi is under discussion, and other locations in the Middle East or Europe are also possible. According to Reuters, cited by the Berliner Zeitung, Ukrainian, Russian and American negotiators are to meet in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November; Zelensky had already announced this on Friday, and the Kremlin also confirmed such plans. A summit between Zelensky, Putin and US President Donald Trump has not yet been agreed.
Kyiv wants to involve European representatives and hopes that technical talks will prepare a meeting of the heads of state. Zelensky named a ceasefire for attacks on energy supply, security for grain shipments in the Black Sea and further prisoner exchanges as achievable results. 270 Ukrainian prisoners had returned; a comprehensive all-for-all exchange would require negotiations at the highest level. At the same time, he warned against lifting sanctions against Russia prematurely. Moscow rejects a general ceasefire before a comprehensive agreement and argues that Kyiv could use the time to rearm.
Zelensky said two of three acute points of contention with Washington had been resolved after the Oslo meeting. The sharing of US intelligence data on Russian ballistic missile launches had been fully restored, as had the satellite capacities of Starlink and Starshield. During nightly tests with defence representatives, the service had again reached speeds of 420 kilometres per hour. The shortage of air defence weapons, by contrast, remains unresolved.
Ukraine had recently reported connection dropouts for drones connected to Starshield at certain speeds. On Saturday, Interior Minister Yevhenii Khmara said, according to Welt, that the speed restrictions had been lifted and that the connections were stable even at more than 400 kilometres per hour. Who ordered the restrictions remains unclear. US President Trump stated that he had not made the decision; SpaceX founder Elon Musk says the US government decides on the use of Starshield. Musk had accused Ukraine of having “used Starlink for offensive drone attacks”. Zelensky’s adviser Serhii Beskrestnov contradicted this: the long-standing restrictions on the civilian version ruled out use for offensive attacks. That Musk knew nothing about it was strange.
Meanwhile, the fighting continued. In the night to Monday, according to Ukrainian authorities, four people were injured in Zaporizhzhia and two more in the Chernihiv region, as Reuters reported. The Russian Ministry of Defence reported attacks on Ukrainian energy and port facilities. From Russia’s Belgorod region, local authorities reported on Sunday four dead and 14 injured as a result of two Ukrainian drone attacks.
Editorial assessment: Zelensky’s appearance is an attempt to stake out his own negotiating position ahead of the November talks – with maximum demands on security guarantees and army size, but a willingness to talk on energy, shipping and prisoner exchanges. Whether Washington actually commits to congressional binding and troop questions is therefore the decisive open question.
