Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will negotiate a peace deal with Vladimir Putin only after a common plan has been agreed with US and European leaders, including “real security guarantees”.
Speculation about a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire agreement swirled around the first day of the Munich Security Conference on Friday, after President Donald Trump said the US delegation was meeting “high-ranking” Russian officials on the sidelines of the event.
Conference organisers said no Russian officials had been accredited while German sources said no visas had been issued for Russian officials.
Vice-president JD Vance offered no detail on US proposals in his 30-minute address, saying only that the Trump administration “believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine”.
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Earlier he told the Wall Street Journal that Washington had a “broad” range of options for talks with Russia: “There are economic tools of leverage. There are, of course, military tools of leverage [too]”.
Before meeting Mr Vance, Mr Zelenskiy said he was optimistic that Mr Trump would support Ukraine in any ceasefire talks. After a week of high-stakes telephone diplomacy, Mr Zelenskiy said he had told Mr Trump that Mr Putin was a “liar” for claiming he wanted to stop his war in Ukraine.
“[Mr Trump] is a strong man and if he will choose our side and not be in the middle I think he will pressure and push Putin to stop the war, he can do it,” said Mr Zelenskiy. “I think that [Mr Putin] is preparing the war against Nato countries next year. How to stop it? Security guarantees for us.”
[ Munich car attack: eerie echoes of other violent incidents in GermanyOpens in new window ]
Taoiseach Micheál Martin will restate Ireland’s support for Ukraine when he meets Mr Zelenskiy on Saturday in Munich. “Ukraine has to be at the centre, it is a matter for Ukrainians ultimately to accept the outcome of any negotiations,” he said.
Tánaiste Simon Harris, also in Munich, told a high-level dinner that “a bad deal for Ukraine is a bad deal for all of us: the US, Europe and Ukraine”.
“Everyone wants to see an end to the war but nobody has seen any detail,” he said, adding it was too soon to say if Ireland would commit to sending peacekeepers.
Rather than focus on Ukraine, or respond to European criticism of this week’s phone call between Mr Trump and Mr Putin, Mr Vance instead read European leaders – in particular those from Germany – the riot act in Munich.
He warned of “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values” on democracy and free speech, particularly over citizens’ immigration concerns.
“You cannot force people want to think, feel or believe,” said Mr Vance. “If you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you.”
In several digs at his German hosts, Mr Vance said “no one went to the ballot box to open the floodgates for millions of undocumented migrants” and claimed Germany was silencing concerns about migration and excluding their political representatives from debate
“This is the most sure-fire way to destroy democracy,” he said.
Ahead of Germany’s federal election on February 23rd, Mr Vance hit out at the so-called “firewall” of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) against co-operation with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
“There is no room for a firewall, you either uphold [democratic] principles or you don’t,” he said, adding that Germany “can survive a few months of Elon Musk”, who has endorsed the AfD in the election campaign.
[ Ukrainians question Kremlin’s desire to end war as EU warns against ‘appeasement’Opens in new window ]
An hour earlier German federal president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, without naming Mr Musk, expressed concern at the Trump administration’s embrace of tech entrepreneurs “who express contempt for our democracy”.
“But democracy is not a plaything for disruption,” said Mr Steinmeier. “And the absence of rules must not become the guiding principles of a new world order.”
EU leaders and officials bristled at Mr Vance’s criticism, with German defence minister Boris Pistorius calling the speech “unacceptable”.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the speech felt like Washington was “trying to pick a fight” with Europe.
Mr Harris described Germany as “a vibrant democracy” which was “having a robust and active electoral process”.
Mr Martin said he didn’t share Mr Vance’s view and recommended focusing on “what actually happens rather than doing a running commentary on what has been a very energetic start for the new US administration”.
After US calls for Nato defence spending goals to increase to five per cent of member states’ gross domestic product, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said EU states’ spending on defence and security had risen by 60 per cent to €320 billion since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We will need to increase that number considerably again,” she added.
Dr von der Leyen promised to push for an “escape clause” to allow member states' defence spending bypass EU fiscal rules. In addition she called for greater common defence spending and vowed to expedite Ukraine’s EU accession bid.
Ahead of a high-stakes, closed-door meeting between Mr Vance and Mr Zelenskiy, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock warned Mr Vance in a bilateral meeting that a “sham peace” in Ukraine would lead to further aggression and would weaken the US.
She also dismissed Mr Trump’s suggestion that Russia could return to the G7, saying there could be “no normal co-operation” with Russia under Mr Putin.
