Vice President JD Vance said Friday the United States was prepared to put pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine, ahead of a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Vance also sought to reassure European nations worried about being frozen out of talks on ending the nearly three-year-old conflict, saying "of course" they should be at the table - but adding that Europe needed to share more of the burden for its own defence.
"The president is not going to go in this with blinders on," Vance was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal. "He's going to say, 'Everything is on the table, let’s make a deal.'"
Vance also said Washington had "military leverage" it could use against Russia, and that he backed Ukraine's "sovereign independence".
Speaking before meeting with Vance in Munich, Zelensky said he was ready for direct talks with Russia once Kyiv reached a common position with the United States and Europe on how to end the war.
"We are ready for any conversations with America and our allies," said Zelensky.
"If they provide us with specific answers to specific requests from us and a common understanding of the dangerous Putin, then, with our unified understanding, we will be ready to talk with the Russians."
But in mixed signals from Washington, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth again warned that America's European NATO partners would have to do far more for their own defence and to secure a future Ukraine peace.
"That's why our message is so stark to our European allies," Hegseth said in Warsaw. "Now is the time to invest, because you can't make an assumption that America's presence will last forever."
Hegseth also argued that you "don't have to trust" Putin to negotiate with Russia, two days after Trump stunned allies by saying he had held a cordial phone call with Putin during which they agreed to meet soon.
The Munich conference was dominated by deep concern that Washington and Moscow are working towards a bad peace deal for Ukraine, which would have to cede territory to Russia and be denied a chance to join NATO.
After Washington had also urged its European NATO partners to look after their own defence and raise military spending to five per cent of GDP, there were expectations Vance would announce a drawdown of US forces on the continent.
The head of the Munich conference, Christoph Heusgen, told German radio on Friday "I suspect that today the American vice president will announce that a large part of the American troops will be withdrawn from Europe".
Germany's defence minister Boris Pistorius warned that Europe could not replace US forces in Europe "overnight", and suggested there should be a gradual "roadmap" for any withdrawal.
'Everything is on table'
Zelensky was in Munich to also meet European leaders and push his demand for a "just peace", almost three years into the gruelling conflict, which has seen Russian forces take control of about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory.
Vance, ahead of his speech in Munich on Friday, said it was too early to say how much of Ukraine's territory would remain in Russian hands or what security guarantees the United States and other Western allies could offer Kyiv.
"There are any number of formulations, of configurations, but we do care about Ukraine having sovereign independence," he said.
Zelensky on Thursday warned world leaders "against trusting Putin's claims of readiness to end the war".
EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said Thursday that "any deal behind our backs will not work" and that "appeasement also always fails".
Among the European leaders, diplomats and generals in Munich, many hold grave concerns over the deepening chasm between the transatlantic allies and even for the post-World War II international order itself.
Chernobyl strike
Aside from Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also finally headed to Europe on Friday after his plane was forced to turn around due to a mechanical issue.
Trump said Thursday that "high-level people" from Moscow, Kyiv and Washington would meet in Munich on Friday -- but conference organisers and Moscow later denied this.
Speaking about the Ukraine war front, Zelensky said Friday that a Russian drone had struck a cover built to contain radiation at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, adding that radiation levels were normal.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 133 drones across the country overnight - including attack drones -- targeting northern regions of the country where the Chernobyl plant lies.
Zelensky said the attack was evidence that "Putin is definitely not preparing for negotiations - he is preparing to continue deceiving the world".