The United States has offered to provide NATO-style security guarantees for Kyiv as U.S. and European negotiators reported progress in talks on Monday to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, but a deal on territorial concessions remained elusive.
Envoys sent by U.S. President Donald Trump made the unprecedented offer at talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Berlin, U.S. officials said, 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 Two. However, Moscow has yet to agree to any of the changes discussed in Germany and has not indicated any willingness to do so. […]
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the issue of security guarantees had become ”clearer and more credible,” which he called an important step toward sustainable peace. ”But many difficult questions remain, not least about territories and whether Russia wants peace at all,” Kristersson said in a statement after the Berlin talks. […]
Zelenskiy said after the talks that he would ask the U.S. to hit Russia with sanctions and provide Ukraine with more arms, including long-range weapons, if Moscow rejects the proposals being discussed between Kyiv, Washington and European leaders.
”I think America will apply sanctions pressure and give us more weapons if he (Putin) rejects everything,” Zelenskiy told reporters in a WhatsApp chat. […]
Ukraine has said previously it would not cede territory to Russia, which has taken almost 20% of the country in its east and south since its full-scale February 2022 invasion.
A European source briefed on the latest talks said Russia had not yet budged on its territorial demands. ”The atmosphere is good but the goals remain quite far apart on the core,” the source said. […]
Ukraine said on Sunday it was willing to drop its ambition to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees. But it was not immediately clear how much the talks in Berlin could persuade Russia to agree to a ceasefire.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia’s demand that Ukraine not join NATO was a fundamental question in talks on a possible peace settlement. He said Russia expected an update from the U.S. after the negotiations in Berlin. Läs artikel