KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his government is seeking specific guarantees from Western allies on how post-war security support would function when the nearly five-year war sparked by Russia's full-scale invasion of his nation finally ends.
Zelenskyy's comments in an interview aired late Thursday followed two days of discussions among allies in Brussels that focused on postwar security and reconstruction. They also came before planned three-way talks next week in Abu Dhabi between Ukraine, Russia and the United States, the first trilateral peace discussions since February.
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While talks on the contours of peace continue, the grim reality of war remained front and center Friday in Ukraine, with more Russian drone attacks and a rising death toll from Moscow's guided bomb strike Monday on a former school operating as a humanitarian aid distribution center.
Russian overnight drone strikes caused extensive power outages in several regions, including the Kyiv area, while Bulgarian authorities found what they identified as a Russian drone in the Black Sea.
Two days of talks in Brussels discussed postwar reconstruction, funding for 2027 and security guarantees backed by the Ukrainian government’s Western allies. The meetings brought together officials from the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and the European Union, along with representatives from the World Bank and the U.S. investment group BlackRock, Ukrainian lead negotiator Rustem Umerov wrote in an online post.
“We separately discussed the threats from Russia to Ukraine and all of Europe, as well as joint steps to counter them,” Umerov wrote.
In his television interview, Zelenskyy said he wanted to see tangible results.
“What matters is that it’s clear on paper,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Ukraine’s private 1+1 television broadcast late Thursday. “The question isn’t dozens of points, but simply an understanding of the outcome: If Russia starts (attacking) again, what will happen? Who will do what, with what means, and when?”
Zelenskyy said it was important to maintain bipartisan support for Kyiv in the United States but acknowledged Democrats’ sweeping victories in this week’s midterm elections could have a positive effect on U.S. assistance, including the faster delivery of Patriot missile interceptors that Kyiv says are vital to fend off Russian airstrikes.
“I believe our chances of getting additional assistance from the United States may now grow,” he said.
President Donald Trump met Thursday with Moscow envoy Kirill Dmitriev but declined to give details of what they discussed.
“There’s going to be an agreement, it’s going to be a big agreement and it’s going to involve more than Ukraine,” Trump said, adding that it might include all of Europe.
Trump's son-in-law and envoy Jared Kushner said in a social media message that the goal of the Brussels talks was to “develop practical arrangements that address the security concerns of all sides, reduce the risk of future conflict and create a more stable and predictable security environment.”
The European Union played down expectations for an agreement anytime soon.
“We look forward to seeing it materialize, but there’s a lot of work that needs to go into it,” European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho said. The commission hosted the first day of talks Wednesday at its Brussels headquarters.
“Above all, there needs to be a willingness on the side of the one who first started the war, the one who aggressed,” she told reporters, in a reference to Russia. “There’s a very long way to go there because we haven’t seen much movement on that side.”
The Kremlin on Friday did not comment on Trump’s remarks about a possible deal.
“There are no details,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov said Russia had received no ideas from Europe on security guarantees, but added that any discussion of security between Russia and Ukraine would at some point be “impossible” without Europe’s involvement.
The Kremlin spokesman accused the European side of “persistent indecisiveness and a lack of readiness,” adding that European leaders “haven’t even managed to decide who is authorized to speak on their behalf.”
The death toll from a Russian bomb attack this week on a shelter and a former school now being used as an aid distribution center rose to 53 after more bodies were recovered from the rubble, Mykhailo Semikin, acting head of the region’s military administration, said in an online post.
Ten powerful guided bombs destroyed the facility at Komyshuvakha, a village in southeast Ukraine. Several dozen people are still believed to be missing after what was one of the deadliest attacks in the region in nearly five years of fighting.
Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure caused extensive power outages in seven regions of the country overnight and Friday morning, the Energy Ministry said.
The Kyiv region was hardest hit, with damage forcing continued grid restrictions and crews working on day and night shifts to restore power.
Zelenskyy said the electricity outages and resulting water cuts were worst in the Kyiv area, where “the challenges are very serious” for the capital’s residents and industry.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 227 attack drones, including 86 jet-powered ones, with strikes reported at 14 locations and falling debris at eight more. Overall, Ukraine’s air defenses shot down or suppressed 196 Russian drones overnight into Friday.
In Bulgaria, authorities found and destroyed a Russian Gerbera-2 drone, which was not carrying explosives, in the waters of the country's northern Black Sea coast, the Defense Ministry said Friday. Drones or drone parts have been found numerous times in the sea or on the shore in Bulgaria following the escalation of Russia’s war in Ukraine this year.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Friday that it shot down 142 Ukrainian drones overnight.
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Associated Press writers Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands; Elise Morton in Thessaloniki, Greece; Lorne Cook in Brussels; Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed.
