President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine reiterated in an interview that aired on Sunday that his country would “never” accept a peace deal struck by the United States and Russia if Ukraine did not have a seat at the negotiating table.
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Zelensky sought to avoid criticisms of President Trump and instead praised his strength. He said he had told Mr. Trump during a phone call, shortly after Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke for 90 minutes last week, that Mr. Putin is untrustworthy and feared Mr. Trump.
Mr. Zelensky said he believed that Mr. Putin was “scared” of Mr. Trump, playing toward Mr. Trump’s desire to be seen as strong and the hope that the U.S. president could push Mr. Putin toward a deal he might not otherwise favor.
“I said that he is a liar,” Mr. Zelensky said he told Mr. Trump of Mr. Putin. “And he said, ‘I think my feeling is that he’s ready for these negotiations.’”
Mr. Zelensky added: “But I think he’s really a little bit scared about President Trump. And I think the president has this chance, and he’s strong. And I think that really he can push Putin to peace negotiations.”
Mr. Zelensky’s interview came as three top foreign policy aides in the Trump administration — Marco Rubio, the secretary of state; Mike Waltz, the national security adviser; and Steve Witkoff, the Middle East envoy who also works on Ukraine-Russia issues — were expected to meet with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss a path to ending the war. It would be the first substantial talks between the two countries on the conflict, three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Mr. Zelensky also said Ukraine had obtained intelligence that Mr. Putin is building up forces for a training mission that resembles the one he held just before the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Mr. Zelensky implied, without offering specifics, that the same thing might happen again.
The Ukrainian president described his discussions at the Munich Security Conference with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as an initial step. He said Keith Kellogg, the retired general who is Mr. Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, will visit Ukraine this week, as part of an effort by Mr. Zelensky to demonstrate what the battlefield looks like.
But he stressed that there was no “real plan” for peace yet, “because they can’t have it without us.” He said it will be up to Mr. Trump to decide what kind of security guarantee Ukraine receives, but he rejected Mr. Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine’s membership in the NATO alliance was not practical.
Mr. Zelensky had been presented with a term sheet that would have given the United States half of its mineral resources in exchange for U.S. support. Mr. Zelensky declined that agreement, which U.S. officials have billed as a way to invest in Ukraine’s future but also reimburse the United States for aid it has provided for the war effort.
On “Fox News Sunday,” the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, defended it as the best option for Ukraine’s security.
“We’re talking about growing the pie for the Ukrainian economy,” Mr. Waltz said. “And I can’t think of any better security guarantee than being co-invested with President Trump, with the American people going forward, and having those investments as a protection and of itself, number one.”
He also said the American public was entitled “to be recouped, deserve to have some type of payback for the billions that they have invested in this war.”
“President Trump is rethinking the entire dynamic here,” Mr. Waltz said. “That has some people uncomfortable but I think Zelensky would be very wise to enter into this agreement with the United States. There’s no better way to secure them going forward.”
