By Andrew Gray and Lili Bayer
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held talks with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and other European leaders on Wednesday, aiming to get immediate help to bolster Kyiv’s war effort and discuss longer-term security guarantees.
Zelenskiy told reporters that Wednesday’s talks in Brussels, and a discussion with the European Union’s 27 national leaders the following day, were “a very good opportunity to speak about security guarantees for Ukraine for today and for tomorrow”.
While European leaders insist they are focusing on Ukraine’s immediate needs, some officials have begun discussing how to assure the country’s security after the war comes to a halt, including the possibility of deploying European troops.
Posting later on X, Zelenskiy said he and Rutte had an “important and very substantive meeting” focusing on “strengthening air defense for Ukraine and ensuring the reliability of the peace we are collectively working to achieve”.
NATO “will do everything to ensure that Ukraine is as strong as possible when we turn to more active diplomacy,” he said.
Wednesday’s talks took place with Ukraine on the defensive on the battlefield and uncertainty hanging over future U.S. support, as President-elect Donald Trump pushes for a quick end to the war and has called for an immediate ceasefire.
Rutte said the talks would focus on ensuring Ukraine is “in the best possible position” whenever it decides to enter peace talks by providing more air defence systems and other weapons to boost Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s invasion.
Rutte and Zelenskiy were later joined by a group of other European leaders.
NATO did not say who would attend those talks. But diplomats said they would include German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish President Andrzej Duda, the French and British foreign ministers and top EU officials Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa.
DEPLOYING EUROPEAN TROOPS
Earlier, Zelenskiy met French President Emmanuel Macron, who has pushed the discussion on European troops for Ukraine.
“We share a common vision: reliable guarantees are essential for a peace that can truly be achieved,” Zelenskiy posted on X after the meeting.
“We continued working on President Macron’s initiative regarding the presence of forces in Ukraine that could contribute to stabilizing the path to peace.”
Asked how Britain would respond if Zelenskiy asked for British troops to be sent to Ukraine, British foreign minister David Lammy told Sky News he saw no sign Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready to negotiate.
“The discussion is about equipping Ukraine for the days ahead. That is why we meet at this very sombre moment to ensure that Ukraine gets through the winter and gets into 2025,” he said.
“I know there’s lots of speculation, but the truth is Putin is not a man that you can negotiate with when he is causing such mayhem on European soil at this moment in time,” he added. “It is strength that Vladimir Putin will respond to.”
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa, Lili Bayer, Andrew Gray, William James and Ron Popeski; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Stephen Coates)
