MADRID, Spain: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday that peace in Ukraine and security in Europe “cannot be imposed,” emphasising the need for both Ukrainian and European involvement in talks with Russia.
“Peace in Ukraine and security in Europe cannot be imposed,” said Sanchez, who will embark on a visit to Kyiv on Monday.
Sanchez said that any “just and lasting peace” required Ukrainian and European participation.
US President Donald Trump on Friday said he did not consider it essential for his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky to be present during negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
“The position of the Spanish government is very clear. Neither the strongest law nor the law of the wild west. Peace in Ukraine and the security of Europe cannot be imposed, they must be agreed upon with Ukrainians and Europeans,” Sanchez said.
“Submitting to the aggressor will not bring peace, rather, as proven by history, future and more serious aggressions,” he said.
The Spanish leader also defended Zelensky, whom Trump has called a “dictator” without an election.
“Zelensky was elected president of the Ukrainian government by the vote of Ukrainians,” he said.
Russia and the United States held their first round of talks on ending the Ukraine war on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, aimed at restoring relations and preparing to conclude the conflict.
A second meeting between representatives of Russia and the United States is planned for the next two weeks, the RIA state news agency reported on Saturday, citing Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
The meeting will take place in a third country and the specific location is being agreed upon, Ryabkov told RIA in an interview, without naming who would attend from the Russian or American sides.
The Kremlin said this week that a face-to-face meeting between President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump was possible this month. Both have said they want to meet.
The United States proposed Friday a United Nations resolution on the Ukraine conflict that omitted any mention of Kyiv’s territory occupied by Russia, AFP reported while citing diplomatic sources.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged UN members to approve the “simple, historic” resolution.
Washington’s proposal comes amid an intensifying feud between Trump and Zelensky which has seen Trump claim it was “not important” for his Ukrainian counterpart to be involved in peace talks.
Trump wants Ukraine to give US companies access to vast natural resources as compensation for the tens of billions of dollars of aid delivered under his predecessor Joe Biden.
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Zelensky is “not ready” to sign a deal that would give the United States preferential access to his country’s rare earth minerals, a Ukrainian source said as cited by AFP.
Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser on Friday predicted that Zelensky would sign the deal soon, but the contours of the proposed agreement have not been made public.
Meanwhile, European leaders are working on a military aid package for Ukraine — worth at least €20 billion, three EU diplomats said as cited by POLITICO.
The planned package comes after Trump blamed Zelenskyy, for the war in Ukraine, calling him a “dictator” who had tricked the US into spending billions of dollars in military aid.
The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives also said Thursday there was “no appetite” in Washington to send further aid to Kyiv.
The amount of European aid, which would include military hardware like artillery shells and missiles as well as cash, could yet rise further as diplomats continue intensive consultations ahead of a gathering of foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.
