US officials say Washington agrees to give Ukraine security guarantees to secure deal
‘Article 5-like’ security offer emerges at talks in Berlin in a bid to secure an end to the nearly four-year Russia-Ukraine war
The United States 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 were likely this weekend, US officials said on Monday following the latest discussions with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin.
The officials said talks with 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 on Moscow’s demand that Ukraine concede land in the Donbas region in the country’s east.
Trump dialled into a dinner Monday evening with negotiators and European leaders, and more talks were expected this weekend in Miami or elsewhere in the United States, according to the US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly by the White House.
“I think we’re closer now than we have been, ever,” Trump told reporters at an unrelated White House event. He added: “We’re having tremendous support from European leaders. They want to get it ended, also”.
The US 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 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.