KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will lead Ukraine’s delegation at the Munich Security Conference next week, which U.S. Vice President JD Vance and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, are also expected to attend, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff said Thursday.
Andriy Yermak, who will attend, told The Associated Press the Ukrainian delegation will present the country’s position on ending the war and their views on how “a long and lasting peace” can be achieved.
“It’s necessary that the leaders and the experts in politics who will be in Munich realize that this is momentum,” he said about Ukraine’s message for the event. “That we are very near to really ending this war by a just and lasting peace, but (it’s) necessary to be together… Not to give Russia an opportunity to divide the world, to divide partners.”
The Munich summit is a regular forum for global international security discussions which has taken on new significance amid Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine and other challenges.
The annual conference comes at a pivotal moment for Ukraine, which is striving to establish a relationship with the new U.S. administration — a key partner during the nearly three-year war against Russia.
During his election campaign, President Donald Trump promised to end the fighting within 24 hours, revising that later to within six months of taking office. However, Russia and Ukraine remain far apart, and it is unclear how a ceasefire deal would take shape.
At the Munich meeting, Yermak said Ukraine hopes to discuss what security guarantees could be put in place to prevent repeated aggression by Russia.
The presidential aide said there is still no set date for a meeting of Zelenskyy and Trump but he reiterated that it should happen as soon as possible, adding “we are working on it.”
Yermak confirmed that Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia will visit Kyiv after the Munich Security Conference, around the end of February.
In an attempt to get the new U.S. administration up to speed, Ukrainians plan to provide Kellogg with “full and real information” about the situation on the battlefield, ongoing mobilization efforts and the status of weapons and equipment delivery.
“I think it’s important that we go through these consultations and negotiations before the (Trump) administration has any plans,” he said. “Because our position is that it’s impossible to have, and will be a big mistake to have, any plans without participation by Ukraine in preparing this plan.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces struck an airfield in southern Russia that was being used to launch Iran-designed Shahed drones, Ukraine’s General Staff claimed Thursday. France, meanwhile, said it had delivered the first batch of Mirage fighter jets to Ukraine and the Netherlands sent more F-16s.
The nighttime attack on the Primorsko-Akhtarsk airfield in Russia’s Krasnodar region started a fire, the General Staff wrote on Facebook. The facility houses and fires drones and maintains aircraft used to attack Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia border region.
It was not possible to independently verify the claim. The Russian Defense Ministry reported downing Ukrainian drones over Krasnodar, but it didn’t say where or mention the airfield.
Ukraine has developed its own long-range drones as part of its effort to grow its domestic arms industry and become less dependent on Western help to fight its almost three-year war with Russia. The drones have at times reached deep into Russia, hitting oil refineries, weapons stores and airfields.
Information for this article was contributed by Illia Novikov of The Associated Press.…Read more by SUSIE BLANN and HANNA ARHIROVA The Associated Press
