Zelensky expected to meet Vance in Munich as security conference begins
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US Vice-President JD Vance (right) is welcomed by Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder at Munich Franz Josef Strauss Airport, on Feb 13.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MUNICH - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to meet with US Vice-President JD Vance in Munich on Feb 14 after Donald Trump startled US allies by calling Vladimir Putin and announcing the start of peace talks.
Mr Zelensky is due to meet with Mr Vance and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio before the Munich Security Conference, an annual international gathering of political leaders, military officers and diplomats in the German city.
US President Trump’s move stoked fears among European governments
Mr Trump said on Feb 12 he had held a "highly productive phone call" with Russian President Putin and they had agreed to start negotiations immediately. He then briefed Mr Zelensky on the call.
Mr Zelensky has been publicly cordial about Mr Trump's call with the Russian president but also warned world leaders against "trusting Putin’s claims of readiness to end the war".
The Ukrainian leader may face a challenge in convincing Mr Vance to provide strong backing for Kyiv's war effort.
As a senator, Mr Vance expressed blunt scepticism about US support for Ukraine
Speaking on a podcast in 2022, he said: "I don't really care what happens in Ukraine one way or the other."
Mr Trump’s call with Mr Putin and his upbeat description of the conversation reversed years of US policy under the Biden administration of treating the Russian leader as an international pariah since his 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth added to unease among US allies by declaring Ukraine would have to give up on war aims such as a return to its borders before 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, and NATO membership.
Mr Trump said on Feb 13 that US and Russian officials would also meet in Munich on Feb 14 and Ukraine was invited. But Kyiv said it did not expect to hold talks with Russia in the city.
No Russian officials are invited to the three-day conference, which takes place in a luxury city centre hotel, but that would not prevent a meeting elsewhere in Munich.
The city was in shock on the eve of the conference after a car driven by an Afghan asylum seeker ploughed into a crowd in what the state premier said was probably an attack rather than an accident.
The incident came ahead of a national election on Feb 23 in which security and migration have been major campaign issues. REUTERS
