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US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signalled the pressing need for a peace deal with Russia, as the war between Ukraine and Moscow nears the three-year mark.
At the Munich Security Conference that started on February 14, Mr Vance reaffirmed Washington's attempts to secure a "lasting peace". "We want to achieve a durable, lasting peace, not the kind of peace that's going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road," Vance said as his meeting with Mr Zelensky wrapped up.
Mr Vance vowed more talks "in the days, weeks and months to come" about how peace could be achieved, even as US President Donald Trump delivered a jolt by earlier announcing truce efforts with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Struggling to ensure the US stays on its side, Mr Zelensky too said the meeting with Mr Vance was "our first meeting, not last, I'm sure". "We are ready to move as quickly as possible towards a real and guaranteed peace," Zelensky later wrote on X, adding that an envoy from Washington would visit Kyiv.
In a clip from an NBC interview, Mr Zelensky also said, "We will have low, low chance to survive without support of the United States." He had earlier appeared to play down fears that Trump was cutting out Kyiv, saying the US president had given him his personal number when they spoke.
The conference comes even as Ukrainian air force said on Friday that Russia had launched 133 drones across the country overnight, including attack drones, targeting northern regions of the country where the Chernobyl nuclear plant lies. Mr Zelensky said the attack was evidence that "Putin is definitely not preparing for negotiations -- he is preparing to continue deceiving the world".
Russia said the accusation was a staged "provocation" by Kyiv to blackmail the West into giving it more aid.
At play are fears for Ukraine that the US may leave it out in the cold, after Trump announced his first call with Putin and both he and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth have clearly indicated leaving Ukraine out of NATO. On the other hand, Mr Vance told the Wall Street Journal that Trump would put everything "on the table" in potential talks, and that Washington could even use "military leverage" against Russia to force a deal.
The 61st Munich Security Conference will continue till February 16, bringing together policymakers and experts to discuss global security challenges at a time the US has Trump in power for a second term, a new European Commission and the upcoming German elections.
The three-day event gathers around 60 heads of state and government, 150 ministers, and leaders of major international organisations. Key topics on the agenda include global governance, climate security, and regional conflicts and crises. The future of transatlantic relationship, particularly in light of the return of Trump, will also be discussed.