Zelenskyy calls for European army as Germany hits back at US over Vance tirade – Europe live

Finnish president Alexander Stubb told Reuters on Saturday that the US had sent a questionnaire to European countries asking them what they could do to provide security guarantees for Europe.

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Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Stubb said:

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“The Americans have provided Europeans with the questionnaire on what would be possible.”

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He went on to add:

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“This will force Europeans to think, then it’s up to the Europeans to decide whether they actually answer the questionnaire, or whether they answer it together.”

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According to the Financial Times, the US has asked European leaders to provide information on weaponry, peacekeeping troops as well as security arrangements they could provide for Ukraine.

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It is approaching 5pm in Munich where the Munich Security Conference is in its second day. Here are today’s key updates related to the event:

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German chancellor Olaf Scholz has shot back strongly in defence of his stance against the far-right and said his country will not accept people who “intervene in our democracy,” a day after US vice-president JD Vance scolded European leaders over their approach to democracy. Scholz said:“Free speech in Europe means that you are not attacking others in ways that are against legislation and laws we have in our country.”

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Scholz said on Saturday that the war between Ukraine and Russia would only truly end with peace if Ukrainian sovereignty is secured. “We will also not accept any solution that leads to a decoupling of European and American security. Only one person would benefit from this: President Putin,” he added.

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The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday that the time has come for a European army to be created. “Our army alone is not enough, we need your support,” he said, adding that the “old days” when the US supported Europe “just because it always had” are over. He also told leaders and officials that he would not take Nato membership for Ukraine off the table and insisted that no decisions should be taken on ending Russia’s war without Kyiv and Europe.

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UK foreign minister David Lammy said on Saturday he would encourage US president Donald Trump and Zelenskyy to deepen their partnership in the future. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Lammy said the best security guarantee for Ukraine against future Russian aggression was binding US industry, business and defence capability into its future.

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Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said on Saturday that “Russia is on a war economy. We are not” at the Munich Security Conference. Additionally, Rutte said Nato’s members would have to increase defence spending despite domestic political concerns. The alliance currently calls on members to spend at least 2% of gross domestic product on defence, but Rutte believes a shift to focusing on the capabilities required by Nato will see that rise to more than 3%.

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Europe will need to make tough choices and sacrifices in order to deal with the threats facing it and to ensure its security, said French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot on Saturday. “We need to prepare. We will have to face difficult days, make complicated decisions and even sacrifices which we weren’t expecting until now to ensure this security,” said Barrot, speaking to reporters at Munich Security Conference. Barrot, also on Saturday, defended European policies after a withering attack by US vice-president JD Vance the day before regarding immigration, populist parties and free speech. “Freedom of expression is guaranteed in Europe … Nobody is obliged to adopt our model, but nobody can impose theirs on us,” the French minister wrote on X.

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Rutte also told the conference in Munich that Trump was right to argue for European nations to do more to pay for security on the continent. Rutte said: “It is simply not fair if European Nato countries are paying less for their collective defence than the US is paying for that, because the US would also like to lower its taxes or to spend more on education or whatever you want to spend it on.”

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Poland’s foreign minister Radosław Sikorski said on Saturday that the US’ “credibility” as an ally depended on the outcome of the Ukraine war, after Trump took up direct talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin. “The credibility of the United States depends on how this war ends. Not just the Trump administration, the United States itself,” Sikorski said at the Munich Security Conference.

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Amid angry European reactions to JD Vance’s combative speech in Munich, Switzerland’s president said on Saturday she shared many of the “liberal values” he expressed, seeing the speech as a “plea for direct democracy”. In an interview with the Le Temps daily published on Saturday, she said that “in a certain sense, (the speech) was very Swiss in its call to listen to the population”. Keller-Sutter also played down concerns over US efforts to broker a Ukraine truce deal with Moscow.

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German conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz on Saturday joined his domestic political rivals in condemning Vance’s attack on Europe’s stance toward hate speech and the far right. “We stick to the rules imposed by our democratic institutions,” Merz said in a panel discussion at the Munich Security Conference.

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Europe needs its own plan for Ukraine and for its own security or its future will be decided by other powers, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday. “Europe urgently needs its own plan of action concerning Ukraine and our security, or else other global players will decide about our future. Not necessarily in line with our own interest,” Tusk wrote on X.

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UK foreign minister David Lammy said on Saturday he would encourage US president Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to deepen their partnership in the future.

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“I would encourage Donald Trump and the Ukrainians to look very carefully at a deepening partnership over the next generations,” Lammy said at the Munich Security Conference, reports Reuters.

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The UK and Ukraine signed a landmark 100-year partnership agreement last month to deepen security ties and strengthen their countries’ relationship.

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Lammy said the best security guarantee for Ukraine against future Russian aggression was binding US industry, business and defence capability into its future. “That is what will make Putin sit up and pay attention, and that is what’s attractive to a US president who knows how to get a good deal,” Lammy added.

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Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said on Saturday that “Russia is on a war economy. We are not” at the Munich Security Conference (MSC).

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In remarks later published on the offical MSC X account, Rutte was quoted as saying:

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Russia is on a war economy. We are not. We have to do this and cut the red tape and to our American friends it is also good business because the European allies spend four times more in the US than the US is spending in Europe.”

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Additionally, Rutte said Nato’s members would have to increase defence spending despite domestic political concerns. The alliance currently calls on members to spend at least 2% of gross domestic product on defence, but Rutte believes a shift to focusing on the capabilities required by Nato will see that rise to more than 3%.

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According to the PA news agency, Rutte told the conference in Munich that US president Donald Trump was right to argue for European nations to do more to pay for security on the continent. Rutte said:

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It is simply not fair if European Nato countries are paying less for their collective defence than the US is paying for that, because the US would also like to lower its taxes or to spend more on education or whatever you want to spend it on.

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The argument cannot be that we are so poor here – we are the richest part of the world, the money is there. That cannot be the problem.”

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There would have to be “difficult decisions” taken by European states but sticking to 2% would not be enough, he added. The new Nato process to assess what gaps in defence capabilities need to be filled “will lead you to a number which is much, much more than 2%”, with the new targets due to be set out within months, said Rutte.

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Rutte suggested annual increases of 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points a year could be how the target was set to “get there fast” but in a credible way.

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Since 1963, the Munich Security Conference has seen many consequential speeches, notably Vladimir Putin announcing in 2007 that Russia would never accept a subordinate role in the new world order. But Friday’s speech by JD Vance, the US vice-president, has the potential to be the most consequential – the moment the world order against which Putin railed fell apart.

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Sometimes, even in this digital age, speeches can act as clarifiers. Yes, the 22 minutes were full of laughable hypocrisy, distorted portraits of European democracy and insensitivity to Europe’s trauma with fascism, but for what it said about the chasm in values between most in Europe and the Trump administration, it was hard to overlook.

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The shock was in part because the conference traditionally tends to talk about the polarisation of populism, as opposed to invite a populist to speak. The organisers had expected a dissertation on Ukraine, but instead got the full populist pulpit, and therefore something more significant.

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The speech signalled that the pre-existing dispute between Europe and the US was no longer to do with the sharing of the military burdens, or the nature of the future security threat posed by Russia, but something more fundamental about society.

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It was not just a collection of cheap shots in a culture war, while a real, life-and-death military war was largely ignored. It was a call to arms for the populist right to be able to seize power in Europe, and a promise that the “new sheriff in town” would help them to do so.

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JD Vance has been labelled an “extremist” after he launched a broadside against the UK’s efforts to protect women seeking an abortion.

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The US vice-president’s criticisms of UK and Scottish policies on safe access zones around abortion clinics -part of a wide-ranging tirade against Europe on Friday – were derided as inaccurate and misogynistic by a number of groups, politicians and governments.

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Heidi Stewart, the chief executive of Bpas, the UK’s leading provider of abortion services, said safe zones – buffer areas of 150 metres around abortion clinics designed to stop women being harassed with leaflets, shown pictures of foetuses, or having to pass by vigils – were vital to protect women’s access to essential healthcare in an “overwhelmingly pro-choice country”.

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“Bpas … will always remain proud to stand against misogynistic and anti-democratic interference with British women’s reproductive rights by foreign extremists, whether they are the vice-president of the US or not,” she said.

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The Labour MP Stella Creasy, who campaigned for the safe zones which were introduced last year, posted a picture of a scene from the dystopian television series The Handmaid’s Tale alongside with the words: “And so it begins … ” She accused Vance of calling “for the right to harass women having an abortion” because “our bodies are their battleground, our human rights their target”.

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In Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, he said the UK had “placed the basic liberties of religious Britons … in the crosshairs”, citing the prosecution of Adam Smith-Connor, a physiotherapist and army veteran. Vance said he had been charged with the “heinous crime of standing 50 metres from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes, not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own”.

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Europe needs its own plan for Ukraine and for its own security or its future will be decided by other powers, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday, according to Reuters.

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“Europe urgently needs its own plan of action concerning Ukraine and our security, or else other global players will decide about our future. Not necessarily in line with our own interest,” Tusk wrote on social media platform X.

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“This plan must be prepared now. There’s no time to lose.”

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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday insisted that no decisions should be taken on ending Russia’s war without Kyiv and Europe as the United States pushes to open talks with Moscow.

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“No decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine, no decisions about Europe without Europe. Europe must have a seat at the table,” Zelenskyy told the Munich Security Conference, reports Agence France-Presse.

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Reuters adds that Zelenskyy told leaders at the conference that it would be “dangerous” for US president Donald Trump to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin before meeting him.

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“We will never accept deals reached behind our backs, without our involvement,” Zelenskyy has told leaders at the Munich Security Conference.

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The Ukrainian president said he would not take Nato membership for Ukraine off the table. “We need coordinated diplomacy … end of this war should be our ‘first shared success.”

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Addressing the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the “time has come for a European army to be created”.

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Zelenskyy said that North Korean troops fighting Ukraine are learning “modern warfare”.

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“Our army alone is not enough, we need your support,” he said.

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German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday said that the war between Ukraine and Russia would only truly end with peace if Ukrainian sovereignty is secured.

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“There will only be peace if Ukraine’s sovereignty is secured,” he told the Munich Security Conference. “A dictated peace will therefore never find our support.”

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German chancellor Olaf Scholz has shot back strongly in defence of his stance against the far-right and said his country will not accept people who “intervene in our democracy,” a day after US vice-president JD Vance scolded European leaders over their approach to democracy, reports the Associated Press (AP).

n The German leader spoke with just eight days before crucial elections in Germany, with polls showing the far-right Alternative for Germany party currently in second.

n Vance said on Friday at the Munich Security Conference that he fears free speech is “in retreat” across the continent.

n “Germany is a very strong democracy, and as a strong democracy, we are absolutely clear that the extreme right should be out of political control and out of political decision making processes, and that there will be no cooperation with them,” Scholz said. “We really reject any idea of cooperation between parties, other parties and this extreme right parties.”

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chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.”,”caption”:”Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”

A day earlier, Vance said that many Americans saw in Europe “entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation, who simply don’t like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election.”

n Scholz, shooting back, said “free speech in Europe means that you are not attacking others in ways that are against legislation and laws we have in our country.” He was alluding to rules in Germany that restrict hate speech, reports the AP.

n The comments came as European leaders have been trying to make sense of a tough new line from Washington on issues including democracy and Ukraine’s future, as the Trump administration continues to upend transatlantic conventions that have been in place since after the second world war.

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German chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy are scheduled to speak on the second day of the Munich Security Conference.

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Among other speakers to speak at the conference on Saturday are Nato secretary general Mark Rutte and foreign ministers from countries including Canada, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia and from Syria’s new government.

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The US vice-president, JD Vance, has launched a brutal ideological assault on Europe, accusing its leaders of suppressing free speech, failing to halt illegal migration and running in fear from voters’ true beliefs.

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In a chastising speech on Friday that openly questioned whether current European values warranted defence by the US, he painted a picture of European politics infected by media censorship, cancelled elections and political correctness.

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Arguing that the true threat to Europe stemmed not from external actors such as Russia or China, but Europe’s own internal retreat from some of its “most fundamental values”, he repeatedly questioned whether the US and Europe any longer had a shared agenda. “What I worry about is the threat from within,” Vance said.

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Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, the vice-president had been expected to address the critical question of the Ukraine war and security differences between Washington and Europe. Instead, he widely skated over these to give a lecture on what he claimed was the continent’s failure to listen to the populist concerns of voters.

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Vance said of Donald Trump’s re-election: “There is a new sheriff in town.” He said: “Democracy will not survive if their people’s concerns are deemed invalid or even worse not worth being considered.”

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The blistering and confrontational remarks were met with shock at the conference and were later condemned by the EU and Germany, while drawing praise from Russian state television. They signalled a deepening of the transatlantic chasm beyond different perceptions of Russia to an even deeper societal rupture about values and the nature of democracy.

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned Ukraine has little chance of surviving Russia’s assault without US support, after the phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin earlier in the week.

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The Ukrainian president said in an interview on NBC Meet the Press, which will be broadcast on Sunday:

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n

Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance – low chance to survive without support of the United States.”

n

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After the conversation between Trump and Putin, after which Trump said he and Putin have agreed to begin negotiations for a ceasefire in Ukraine, Zelenskyy told Meet the Press that the Russian president wanted to come to the negotiating table not to end the war but to lift some global sanctions and allow Moscow’s military to regroup.

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“This is really what he wants. He wants pause, prepare, train, take off some sanctions because of ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said.

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Amid concerns that Ukraine may be sidelined in any deal between the US and Russia, Zelenskyy met JD Vance on Friday during the Munich Security Conference, telling the US vice-president that his country wants “security guarantees” and a joint US-Ukrainian peace plan before he enters into any talks with Putin to end the war.

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Earlier in the day, European leaders claimed to have won US assurances that Ukraine’s leadership would be fully consulted over any peace talks with Russia and that the sovereignty of Ukraine would be protected, as they sought to ease fears that Trump was on the brink of abandoning Kyiv.

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Zelenskyy, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Nato chief Mark Rutte are among those to address the conference on Saturday.

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In other developments:

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n
The widow of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has warned there is “no point trying to negotiate” with Putin on Ukraine. “Just remember: he will lie,” Yulia Navalnaya told the Munich Security Conference on Friday. “If he remains in power, he will find a way to break the agreement. If he loses power, the agreement will become meaningless.”

n
The talks between Zelenskyy and Vance ended without an announcement of a critical minerals deal that is central to Kyiv’s push to win Trump’s backing. Kyiv came back to the US earlier with a revised draft agreement of the deal that could open up its vast resources of key minerals to US investment. “Our teams will continue to work on the document,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

n
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he assured his Ukrainian counterpart that it’s “Ukrainians alone who can drive the discussions for a solid and lasting peace” with Russia. “We will help them in this endeavour,” Macron wrote on X on Friday after a phone call with Zelenskyy, adding if Trump “can truly convince president Putin to stop the aggression against Ukraine, that is great news”.

n
A Russian drone carrying a high-explosive warhead struck the protective containment shell of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Zelenskyy said the damage to the shelter was “significant” and had started a fire, but he added that radiation levels at the plant had not increased. The SBU security service said the Iranian-designed Shahed drone intended to hit the reactor enclosure.

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Agence France-Presse has some more on Olaf Scholz’s comments today at the Munich Security Conference.

On Ukraine, the German chancellor said:

We will also not accept any solution that leads to a decoupling of European and American security. Only one person would benefit from this: President Putin.

We Europeans will represent these interests confidently and unitedly in the upcoming negotiations.”

Scholz spoke shortly before Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was to address the gathering of European leaders and policymakers in Germany.

Scholz said that to ensure Russia would not attack again if peace is reached, Kyiv’s backers “first of all” needed to build up Ukraine’s armed forces in the future.

“There will be a responsibility in the post war times for Europe and for the United States and for the international partners and friends of Ukraine to make this happen,” he said. “All the sort of security guarantees we give should be designed from this basis.”

German chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during the 61st Munich Security Conference (MSC), in Munich, Germany. Photograph: Ronald Wittek/EPA

Ukraine peace only possible if ‘sovereignty secured’, says Scholz

German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday said that the war between Ukraine and Russia would only truly end with peace if Ukrainian sovereignty is secured.

“There will only be peace if Ukraine’s sovereignty is secured,” he told the Munich Security Conference. “A dictated peace will therefore never find our support.”

Olaf Scholz said that while Europe must build up its defence industry, Germany would also keep buying US-made military hardware.

The German chancellor called for a “strong European arms industry” but added that “we are not giving up the transatlantic integration of our defence industries. We will continue to buy new American military equipment in the future”.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday predicted that the future government would create an exemption for spending on defence and security when dealing with the nation’s constitutional limit on federal public debt, reports Reuters.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Scholz said he was sure that the country’s future leadership, to be determined at the 23 February election, would put these exemptions into place to loosen the so-called debt brake.

German chancellor hits back at US at security conference

The German leader spoke with just eight days before crucial elections in Germany, with polls showing the far-right Alternative for Germany party currently in second.

Vance said on Friday at the Munich Security Conference that he fears free speech is “in retreat” across the continent.

“Germany is a very strong democracy, and as a strong democracy, we are absolutely clear that the extreme right should be out of political control and out of political decision making processes, and that there will be no cooperation with them,” Scholz said. “We really reject any idea of cooperation between parties, other parties and this extreme right parties.”

Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP

Scholz, shooting back, said “free speech in Europe means that you are not attacking others in ways that are against legislation and laws we have in our country.” He was alluding to rules in Germany that restrict hate speech, reports the AP.

The comments came as European leaders have been trying to make sense of a tough new line from Washington on issues including democracy and Ukraine’s future, as the Trump administration continues to upend transatlantic conventions that have been in place since after the second world war.

The US vice-president and the Ukrainian president were locked in bilateral discussions at the Munich Security Conference on Friday as part of Donald Trump’s push for a negotiated peace agreement to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy referred to it as a “good conversation” and both spoke of more talks to come. You can see our video report on the story here:

JD Vance and Volodymyr Zelenskyy have ‘good conversation’ about Ukraine war – video

Munich Security Conference: Saturday’s speakers

German chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy are scheduled to speak on the second day of the Munich Security Conference.

JD Vance stuns Munich conference with blistering attack on Europe’s leaders

Patrick Wintour

The widow of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has warned there is “no point trying to negotiate” with Vladimir Putin. “Just remember: he will lie,” Yulia Navalnaya told the Munich Security Conference on Friday two days before the first anniversary of her husband’s death.

“He will betray,” she said about the Russian president. “He will change the rules at the last moment and force you to play his game. There are only two possible outcomes for any deal with Putin. If he remains in power, he will find a way to break the agreement. If he loses power, the agreement will become meaningless.”

Navalnaya was joined on a panel discussion by the exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who said “by helping Ukraine, you’re helping the whole region”. Tikhanovskaya warned if Ukraine did not come out on top after the war, “Putin will be still strong enough to keep his influence on Belarus”. “By putting Ukraine in a strong position during these negotiations, you put also Belarus, Moldova and other countries in a strong position.”

Opening summary

The Ukrainian president said in an interview on NBC Meet the Press, which will be broadcast on Sunday:

Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance – low chance to survive without support of the United States.”

“This is really what he wants. He wants pause, prepare, train, take off some sanctions because of ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Nato chief Mark Rutte are among those to address the conference on Saturday.

In other developments:

The widow of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has warned there is “no point trying to negotiate” with Putin on Ukraine. “Just remember: he will lie,” Yulia Navalnaya told the Munich Security Conference on Friday. “If he remains in power, he will find a way to break the agreement. If he loses power, the agreement will become meaningless.”
The talks between Zelenskyy and Vance ended without an announcement of a critical minerals deal that is central to Kyiv’s push to win Trump’s backing. Kyiv came back to the US earlier with a revised draft agreement of the deal that could open up its vast resources of key minerals to US investment. “Our teams will continue to work on the document,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he assured his Ukrainian counterpart that it’s “Ukrainians alone who can drive the discussions for a solid and lasting peace” with Russia. “We will help them in this endeavour,” Macron wrote on X on Friday after a phone call with Zelenskyy, adding if Trump “can truly convince president Putin to stop the aggression against Ukraine, that is great news”.
A Russian drone carrying a high-explosive warhead struck the protective containment shell of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Zelenskyy said the damage to the shelter was “significant” and had started a fire, but he added that radiation levels at the plant had not increased. The SBU security service said the Iranian-designed Shahed drone intended to hit the reactor enclosure.