KYIV, Ukraine

Ukraine needs security guarantees against Russia, the nation’s president said on Wednesday following Moscow’s latest actions against Kyiv.

The Budapest Memorandum is no longer working and Ukraine is not a member of any security alliance, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a joint news conference in the capital Kyiv alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.

The Budapest Memorandum is a 1994 agreement guaranteeing Ukraine’s security.

The president said Ukraine defends itself on its own with the support of its partners.

"But Ukrainians are dying, so Ukraine needs clear, concrete security guarantees," he asserted.

Zelenskyy said that Russia should be among the countries that will provide security guarantees since there are 150,000 Russian troops along Ukraine’s borders.

The Ukrainian leader said he suggested many times that they sit down at the negotiating table with Russian President Vladimir Putin and have talks as "this is a matter of dialogue, not laying down conditions."

Putin on Monday announced that Russia was recognizing Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states, followed quickly by sending Russian forces there to “maintain peace.”

Lithuanian leader stresses ‘strong response’ against Russia

Duda, for his part, said they came to Kyiv to support Ukraine in face of the threat of “Russian aggression”.

The decisions taken by Putin, he said, pose a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to the entire region.

In his remarks at the news conference, Nauseda welcomed sanctions against Russia.

“Only a serious and strong response can stop the crisis from growing,” he said.

The leaders also issued a joint statement condemning Russia’s decision to recognize two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow’s announcements drew widespread global condemnation as violations of the UN Charter and international law, with Western countries announcing new sanctions on Russia.

In 2014, after invading Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, Moscow began to support separatist forces in eastern Ukraine against the central government, a policy that it has maintained for the past seven years. The conflict has taken more than 13,000 lives, according to the UN.

Putin’s latest moves follow Russia amassing more than 100,000 troops and heavy equipment in and around its neighbor, with the US and Western countries accusing it of setting the stage for an invasion.

Russia has denied it is preparing an invasion and instead claimed Western countries undermined its security through NATO’s expansion toward its borders.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan