US offers Ukraine security guarantees, issues remain
Andreas Rinke, Tom Balmforth and Steve Holland |
The United States has offered to provide NATO-style security guarantees for Kyiv as US and European negotiators reported progress in talks to end the war with Russia, but a deal on territorial concessions remains elusive.
US envoys, including Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, sent by the president made the unprecedented offer at talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Berlin but warned such a deal would not be on the table forever.
The talks in the German capital have sparked some optimism from European leaders on a path to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II. However, Moscow is yet to agree to any of the changes discussed in Germany and has not indicated any willingness to do so.
“We’re trying to get it done,” Trump said of an agreement to end the war, speaking at the White House after he called into a dinner involving the key officials in Berlin.
“We had numerous conversations with President Putin of Russia, and I think we’re closer now than we have been ever and we’ll see what we can do.”
European leaders cautiously welcomed the Trump administration’s apparent shift on security guarantees for Ukraine.
“For the first time since the war began, the possibility of a ceasefire is conceivable,” said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who hosted the meetings, in a post on X.
“Today I had the feeling for the first time… that everyone was behaving like allies from one camp,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters on his plane after leaving Berlin.
“For the first time I heard from the mouths of American negotiators… that America would engage in security guarantees for Ukraine in such a way that the Russians would have no doubt that the American response would be military if the Russians attacked Ukraine again.”
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the issue of security guarantees had become “clearer and more credible.”
“But many difficult questions remain, not least about territories and whether Russia wants peace at all,” Kristersson said in a statement.
The US is leaning on Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the eastern Donetsk region, an official familiar with the matter said, in what would be a massive concession that could cause a ferocious backlash in Ukraine.
Calling the issue of territorial concessions “painful”, Zelenskiy told reporters later: “Frankly speaking, we still have different positions.”
But he said he believed US mediators would help find a compromise.
Kyiv’s negotiators will continue consultations with US counterparts, he said, adding that Ukraine needed a concrete understanding on security guarantees, including the monitoring of a ceasefire, before making any decisions related to the war’s front lines.
“I do not think that the (US) has demanded anything,” Zelenskiy said.
“I see us as strategic partners, so I would say that we have heard about the issue of territories in relation to Russia’s vision or Russia’s demands from the (US) We see this as demands from the Russian Federation.”
US officials told reporters by conference call they had secured agreement on 90 per cent of the issues. Though longstanding territorial issues remain, one said.
Ukraine has said previously it would not cede territory to Russia, which has taken almost 20 per cent of the country in its east and south since its full-scale February 2022 invasion.
Working groups are expected to meet in the US during the coming weekend, possibly in Miami, one of the officials said.
“Are we prepared to go to Russia if needed? Absolutely,” the official added.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia expected an update from the US after the negotiations in Berlin.
with AP
Reuters
