Zelensky: Russia Seeks Freedom to Use Force, Not Genuine Security

Russia’s calls for security guarantees are a cover for keeping a free hand to use force against other countries, President Volodymyr Zelensky told Danish lawmakers on Wednesday, Nov. 11, noting that no one has attacked Russia in decades. He made the remarks in a speech to the Folketing, Denmark’s parliament, as the second and final day of trilateral talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US concluded. Although a deal was struck on large-scale prisoner exchange, no agreement on territory was reached.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “Therefore, when Russians talk about a security architecture for themselves or security guarantees for Russia, they are unlikely talking about genuine security. Or about peace,” Zelensky said, according to a statement on Telegram. Russia’s wars since WWII Zelensky built his case on history, telling the chamber that not a single decade has passed without Russia starting a war or turning its military against another country. That record, he argued, shows Moscow is not looking for genuine protection. Instead, he said, it wants room to meddle in its neighbors’ affairs and use force whenever it sees fit, while making sure “that no one can support freedom within Russia.” The same issue was central to the Abu Dhabi negotiations, where the Russian delegation made a new European security order its main demand. Under that framework, Moscow seeks guarantees for itself, a halt to NATO enlargement and a reduced alliance presence in countries that joined after 1997. Other Topics of Interest EXPLAINER: Why Ukraine, Russia, and US See Talks Differently Abu Dhabi peace talks produced a prisoner exchange agreement, but Ukraine, Russia, and the US offered different verdicts on security and territory. Ukraine’s negotiating team, however, countered that no broader framework could be built before a full ceasefire. The Kremlin, however, pressed the point outside the negotiating room as well. Speaking at a security conference in the Russian capital the same day, senior Foreign Ministry diplomat Alexey Drobinin suggested Russia could sign nonaggression pacts with individual NATO members. Patriots sent to Middle East Moving from Russia’s demands to Ukraine’s own defenses, Zelensky repeated his earlier warning that Ukraine lacks enough Patriot missiles – the main weapons system Kyiv relies on to successfully down Russian ballistic missiles. The same weapons, he argued, are high in demand elsewhere as Washington continues waging its war on Iran. “When we are looking for Patriot missiles to protect our cities and communities from Russian ballistic attacks, we are constantly confronted with the same problem,” Zelensky said, “the missiles are going to the Middle East.” In his view, the real question for many countries is what rising prices and scarce weapons could mean for their own societies. For Kyiv, the shortage has already arrived. “In our world, nothing remains local, especially wars and injustices,” he said, urging other countries to rethink how they approach security. The warning carries particular weight as Ukraine approaches its fifth winter of war. In its previous winter campaigns, Russia repeatedly struck critical and civilian infrastructure, including power and water systems, often leaving thousands of residents without electricity, water or heating in freezing temperatures. This heating season has started no differently. A massive Russian attack on the night of Nov. 2-3 knocked three power plants offline, forcing emergency electricity cuts in Kyiv, the surrounding region and the Dnipropetrovsk region, prompting Zelensky to urge partners to speed up Patriot deliveries. Different readings from Abu Dhabi The Abu Dhabi round, which senior US envoy Steve Witkoff described as working-level negotiations, was meant to cover postwar security, de-escalation, humanitarian issues and a path to ending the war. On the opening day, Tuesday, Nov. 10, the delegations focused mainly on security arrangements for Europe, Ukraine and Russia, along with a new prisoner exchange. However, all three sides came away telling different stories. While Ukraine’s chief negotiator, Rustem Umerov, spoke of “huge progress” on security and prosperity arrangements, Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky was more guarded, saying the sides had found common ground on some points but not on others. US envoy Jared Kushner said territory remains the hardest issue, noting that no postwar security arrangement can take effect until it is resolved. The Kremlin left very little room for compromise on the issue. In an interview with Russian state television’s news service Vesti, Medinsky said Russia considers any land its troops have reached to be its own and sees no possibility of territorial exchange. Europe, meanwhile, remained sidelined during the talks. Britain, France, Germany, Italy, NATO and the European Commission held separate meetings with the Ukrainian and US teams but never joined the talks with Russia, an absence several European commentators criticized. To keep the diplomatic momentum going, Witkoff and Kushner are already planning to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Thursday, Nov. 12, before meeting with Zelensky in Ireland. Davyd Arakhamia, head of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction and a member of Ukraine’s delegation, said a date for the next round should be set only after those meetings, adding that Kyiv sees the talks moving fast enough to reach a settlement before the New Year.