President Zelenskyy Asks Trump To Guarantee Ukraine's Security In Negotiations To End The War With Russia

US President-elect Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron/screenshot via Instagram @zelenskyy_official

JAKARTA - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has used his first meeting with Donald Trump since the US election to explain the need for security guarantees for Ukraine in every negotiation to end the war with Russia.

This information was conveyed by two sources who knew about the discussions on December 7 as reported by Reuters.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted a meeting in Paris, where Ukrainian leaders are trying to build good relations with Trump, whose promise to end the conflict quickly, raises concerns in Kyiv that it largely depends on Moscow's terms.

Reuters spoke to five people briefed on the meeting.

The three leaders of the country, speaking for 35 minutes without advisory, did not discuss specific details regarding the peace vision.

But Trump repeated he wanted an immediate ceasefire and negotiations to end the war quickly, four of them said.

The meeting provided some preliminary clues on how negotiations to end the conflict may be underway, although the process that would involve Russian President Vladimir Putin is full of difficulties and the role of the United States remains unclear.

Trump is said to be friendly, respectful and open and seemed to listen, said one source. The Trump team did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this news.

Neither Trump nor officials close to him dealing with Ukraine have publicly disclosed how they actually envision a solution to the war and Ukraine's insistence that Ukraine should accept security guarantees as part of any settlement.

This has created a growing sense of uncertainty in Kyiv and exacerbated by Russian territorial annexation for months in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and drone strikes every night in cities far behind the front lines.

"Some important points are mentioned in the meeting, for example, it is said that peace requires guarantees because a ceasefire alone is not enough, Putin can violate it again, as he did before, without proper guarantees," a source said at the Ukrainian presidential office.

When asked what he thought, the source said, referring to Trump,

"He's thinking about all the details."

Kyiv has prompted the US government to join the NATO military alliance, after long declaring that it needs security guarantees to prevent a new Russian invasion in the future.

This last message was consistent even as Zelenskiy recently acknowledged the diplomatic end to war would save lives, softening his previous insistence that all Moscow troops should be expelled from Ukraine in order for peace to be reached.