JAKARTA - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that a bilateral security guarantee document between Kyiv and Washington "is basically ready" to be finalized with US President Donald Trump.
As a foundation of any post-war settlement, Ukraine has sought strong guarantees obliging the US and other Western allies to assist Ukraine if Russia were to attack again.
Ukrainian and US envoys, along with a coalition of Ukrainian allies, have been negotiating in Paris this week to resolve remaining differences within the framework of a peace plan Washington wants to formulate with Kyiv before submitting it to Russia.
On Tuesday, the US backed the idea of providing security guarantees to Ukraine for the first time.
"The bilateral document on security guarantees for Ukraine is basically ready to be completed at the highest level with the President (Trump)," President Zelensky posted on X, launching Al Arabiya from Reuters (9/1).
He further explained that the meeting of Ukrainian and US representatives in Paris on Wednesday discussed "complex issues" of the framework being discussed to end the nearly four-year-old war, and Kyiv had presented its solutions to these matters.
The Ukrainian president called for further pressure on Russia after Russian missile attacks further hit energy infrastructure on Wednesday, arguing that the credibility of future security guarantees must be shown by a response at this stage.
President Zelenskyy said that although a framework had been agreed to 90 percent, there were still strange issues surrounding control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as well as Russia's demands on Kyiv to hand over some strategically important territory in eastern Ukraine that Moscow has not been able to seize during the nearly four-year war.
"We understand that the Americans will have a dialogue with Russia, and we expect feedback on whether the aggressor is really willing to end the war," he tweeted.
He said the team also discussed documents related to post-war recovery and economic development of Ukraine.
The World Bank last year estimated the cost of Ukraine's reconstruction and recovery at $524 billion, while the Trump administration has sought to capitalize on economic gains and post-war preferential access for the US in Ukraine.
It is known that under President Trump, Washington has shifted its position from direct support of Kyiv to a mediator who is pressing both sides to agree to peace, and will try to get Moscow to sign an agreement negotiated with Ukraine.
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