He made the remarks at a news conference with Finnish PM Petteri
Orpo in Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine is considering three main options:
joining NATO, receiving direct security guarantees from the United States modeled
on NATO’s Article 5, and securing equivalent support from the European Coalition
of the Willing.
He said the mechanisms could complement one another.
“We are talking about a comprehensive set of guarantees,” Zelenskyy
said.
“There is NATO, direct guarantees from the United States,
which are currently being discussed with the Americans, and the Coalition of
the Willing.”
He reiterated that Ukraine’s security must be based on a
strong military with adequate funding, which Ukraine would not be able to
provide entirely on its own.
Zelenskyy also said any U.S. guarantees must be clearly
defined and affirmed by Congress. He cited the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which
failed to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
On Oct. 21, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff held
talks with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin at the Konstantinovsky Palace in St.
Petersburg. Witkoff said he had brought Putin documents outlining approaches to
ending the war in Ukraine.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov later said that the war in Ukraine
was “moving toward an end.”