What does every country of a peace deal want

The future of Ukraine is the focus of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), just days after a shock telephone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which they agreed to start negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

Describing the call earlier this week as “great”, Trump said he had “a good opportunity to end this terrible, very bloody war.”

Ukraine President Volodimir Zelenski warned that his country should not be left with peace talks.

European allies seemed surprised by the nature of the call, with French President Emmanuel Macron warning that any peace agreement, which includes a capitulating in Russia, would end “bad for everyone.”

It is not yet clear when the peace talks can start, but when they make problems around the territory, the security negotiations and the future of Ukraine in NATO will be among the main topics of discussion. This is where the different countries are.

Moscow currently controls around the fifth of the territory of Ukraine, mainly south and east.

After the overthrow of the pro -Russian president of Ukraine in 2014, Russia annexed the Black Sea Crimean Peninsula and supported the pro -Russian separatists in bloody fighting in the regions of Donetsk and Luhanski.

The conflict then broke out in a complete war nearly three years ago after Russia’s full -scale invasion.

Moscow’s attempts to seize the capital Kiev have been thwarted, but since then the Russian forces are slowly expanding their territorial control, most of all to the east.

Ukrainian forces, backed by weapons and equipment from the US and European allies, made these achievements as difficult as possible and sometimes managed to seize the territory as well as to place a counterattack in Western Russia.

Ukraine always insisted that every peace transaction should include the full withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine back to the borders before 2014, including Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk.

“We will never recognize the occupied territories like Russian,” Zelenski said at a press conference during MSC.

Russia, on the other hand, officially annexes four regions of Eastern and Southern Ukraine and wants them to be recognized as part of Russia – although it does not control the entire territory in these regions.

In an interview GuardianZelenski suggested that the territory held by Russia in Ukraine could be exchanged for territory seized from Ukraine in the Western Kursk area in Russia as part of the peace deal. However, the Kremlin quickly turned off this.

Until recently the Western allies of Ukraine stood until the position of Zelenski That all of Ukraine, including Crimea, must be returned.

But the new US Secretary of Defense Pete Heget poured cold water on these hopes, saying at a summit in February that it was a “unrealistic goal” before 2014.

“The pursuit of this illusion goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” he said.

Ukraine wants to join NATO, arguing that the Western Military Union – in which members promise to defend each other, if attacked, is the best way to guarantee its security.

For Kiev, Russia’s full -scale invasion is proof that only NATO membership can guarantee its security.

However, Russia consistently opposes the idea of ​​Ukraine to become a member, fearing that it will lead to NATO forces.

When he arrived for MSC, Zelenski said Ukraine trusts NATO’s security guarantees before adding that he thinks that membership will be “the cheapest option for all”.

Europe has to unite around Ukraine to protect itself, he added.

NATO members constantly claim that Ukraine should become a NATO member in the future, with the United Kingdom Prime Minister Sir Kiir Starmer told Zelenski that the country is on an “irreversible path” to membership.

But these guarantees now seem less solid after US Secretary of Defense has diminished the likelihood of NATO membership for Ukraine in any peaceful settlement.

“The United States does not believe that NATO’s membership of Ukraine is a realistic result of an agreed agreement,” Heget said.

Zelenski said previous discussions with US President Donald Trump “are definitely not enough to form a plan for peace.

Speaking when he arrived at MSC, he said the signals coming from the US were “strong” but “diverse”.

Heget claims that Trump is a “one person in the world” capable of gathering both sides and insists that our attempts to negotiate peace “is certainly not a betrayal” of Ukrainian soldiers fighting invading Russian forces.

Meanwhile, the US Vice President said sending troops to Ukraine is “still on the table” if Russia fails to negotiate a peaceful deal in good faith.

“The president doesn’t go into this with blinds,” Jd Vance said said to Wall Street JournalS

Already in October, Zelenski exposed his plan to win in Parliament of Ukrainewhich includes key points such as NATO membership, joint protection of the US and the EU of critical natural resources and Russia’s restriction through a non -nuclear strategic determination package located on Ukrainian soil.

At that time, US President Joe Biden received a briefing for this plan – as well as the then candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

It is unclear whether any part of Zelenski’s plans will be accepted at peace talks, but Hesges warned that there would be no US troops on Earth Ukraine in every future security agreement.

Zelenski told The Guardian that he does not believe that security guarantees without our involvement will work.

The UK’s cited sources of defense In the Times newspaper claim that the United States could provide some form of air defense – possibly patriotic missiles – To a peacekeeping force in Ukraine in exchange for access to minerals.