US agrees security guarantees for Ukraine in peace talks, say officials
European leaders with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, centre left, US special envoys Steve Witkoff, centre right, and Jared Kushner, second right, at the chancellery in Berlin Picture: Markus Schreiber, Pool/AP
The US has agreed to provide unspecified security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a peace deal to end Russia’s nearly four-year war, and more talks are likely this weekend, US officials said.
The news follows the latest discussions with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin.
The officials said talks with US president Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, led to narrowing differences on security guarantees that Kyiv said must be provided, as well as Moscow’s contentious demand that Ukraine concede land in the eastern Donbas region.
Mr Trump was expected to dial in to a dinner on Monday evening with negotiators and European leaders, and more talks were likely this weekend in Miami or elsewhere in the United States, according to the US officials.
The officials said the offer of security guarantees would not be on the table “forever”.
They said the Trump administration planned to put forward the agreement on security guarantees for Senate approval, although they did not specify whether it would be ratified like a treaty, which needs the chamber’s two-thirds approval.
The US officials also said there was consensus on about 90% of the US-authored peace plan, and that Russia had indicated it was open to Ukraine joining the European Union, something it previously said it did not object to.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the Ukrainians, Americans and Europeans agreed that “a ceasefire should be secured by substantial legal and material security guarantees from the US and Europe”, calling it a “truly far-reaching, substantial agreement that we did not have before, namely that both Europe and the US are jointly prepared to do this”.
Questions over Ukraine’s post-war security and the fate of occupied territories have been the main obstacles in talks.
Mr Zelenskyy has emphasised that any Western security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the US Congress.
Speaking on Monday, Mr Zelenskyy called the talks “substantial” and noted that differences remained on the issue of territories.
Mr Zelenskyy has expressed readiness to drop Ukraine’s bid to join the Nato military alliance if the US and other Western nations give Kyiv security guarantees similar to those offered to Nato members. But Ukraine’s preference remains Nato membership as the best security guarantee to prevent further Russian aggression.
Ukraine has continued to reject the US push for ceding territory to Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of Donetsk region still under its control as a key condition for peace.
The Russian president has cast Ukraine’s bid to join Nato as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine renounce the bid for alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.
Asked whether the negotiations could be over by Christmas, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said trying to predict a potential time frame for a peace deal was a “thankless task”.
“I can only speak for the Russian side, for President Putin,” Mr Peskov said.
“He is open to peace, to a serious peace and serious decisions. He is absolutely not open to any tricks aimed at stalling for time.”
Mr Putin has denied plans to attack any European allies.
Russia fired 153 drones of various types at Ukraine overnight Sunday into Monday, according to Ukraine’s air force, which said 133 drones were neutralised, while 17 more hit their targets.
In Russia, the defence ministry said on Monday that forces had destroyed 130 Ukrainian drones overnight. An additional 16 drones were destroyed between 7am and 8am local time.
Eighteen drones were shot down over Moscow itself, the defence ministry said. Flights were temporarily halted at the city’s Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports as part of safety measures, officials said.
Damage details and casualty figures were not immediately available.
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