Ukrainian team heading to US for security guarantee talks, Zelenskyy says

A Ukrainian delegation is en route to the US for talks on security guarantees and a post-war recovery package, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday, expressing hope the documents could be signed on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos next week.

During the talks, Kyiv's team also hopes to get clarity from the US on the Russian stance towards US-backed diplomatic efforts to end the nearly four-year war, Zelenskiy told a news conference in Kyiv alongside Czech President Petr Pavel.

"I think we have worked well with the American side, we are just not on the same side on some issues," Zelenskyy said of the negotiations with Washington.

US President Donald Trump told Reuters earlier this week that he may meet with Zelenskyy at the WEF, a meeting which the Ukrainian leader has publicly sought.

Zelenskyy said that Ukraine had completed its part of the work on the documents outlining a "prosperity package" to unlock money for Ukraine's costly post-war recovery, as well as on US security guarantees designed to stop a future Russian attack. Ukrainian officials have said the country will need $800 billion for its post-war reconstruction.

Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Olga Stefanishyna, said senior Ukrainian officials would take part in bilateral talks on the two key agreements on Saturday in Miami. "The purpose of the visit is to refine these agreements with American partners," she said in a post on Facebook, adding they "may be signed ... in Davos."

Ukraine's delegation will include the head of Zelenskyy's office, Kyrylo Budanov, secretary of Ukraine's national security and defence council, Rustem Umerov, and the head of Zelenskyy's parliamentary faction, Davyd Arakhamia, she added.

Washington has pushed Ukraine to agree to a peace framework that it will then present to Moscow, while Kyiv and its European allies have sought to ensure that Ukraine will not be attacked again by Russia in future. "Ultimatums are not, in my view, a workable model for democratic relations between countries," Zelenskyy said, without specifying to what he was referring.

Trump, who has often criticised Zelenskyy, said on Wednesday that Russia was ready for a peace deal and that he saw the Ukrainian leader as the obstacle to peace, an assessment that stands in stark contrast with that of European allies.

On Friday, Zelenskyy said Russia was stalling peace efforts, and cited Moscow's recent strikes on Ukraine's energy system as proof of Moscow's real intentions.

"Each of these strikes against our energy sector and our cities quite clearly shows Russia's real interests and intentions: they are not interested in agreements, but in the further destruction of Ukraine," he posted on social media after the news conference.

At the news conference, Zelenskyy also pushed for more air defence ammunition to protect Ukraine's power grid. He said that until a new aid package had arrived on Friday morning, several air defence systems had been left without missiles. "We need to fight for these (aid) packages with blood, with people's lives," he told reporters.