In talks with US, Ukraine gets close to security guarantees but deal on land remains elusive

In the latest round of talks with US President Donald Trump’s envoys, Ukraine on Monday appeared to have moved closer to securing security guarantees, but a respectable agreement on territorial concessions remains elusive.

During discussions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders in Berlin, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, on Monday pledged security guarantees modelled on Nato’s Article 5, according to Reuters.

Nato’s Article 5 outlines the principle of ‘collective defence’ that forms the core of the alliance. It states that an attack on one ally would be treated as an attack on all, paving the way for a collective response.

Zelenskyy has long maintained that security guarantees —preferably legally binding and approved by the US Congress— must be a non-negotiable aspect of any settlement to the war. The current offer is the first time Trump has pledged such guarantees.

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Two US officials told Reuters that the proposed security guarantees would be “Article 5-like”. They said the guarantees would not remain on the table indefinitely as Trump has been pressing for an end to the war sparked by Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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While they did not describe the nature of the guarantees, the officials said they would include intensive monitoring and deconfliction measures to prevent small conflicts from escalating.

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After Witkoff’s and Kushner’s talks in Berlin, Trump said he had spoken to Zelenskyy and the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Nato, and was optimistic about a timely deal.

“We’re trying to get it done. And I think we’re closer now, and they, they will tell you that they’re closer now. 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,” said Trump.

Security deals on the table but no consensus on land

Even as officials told Reuters that there was agreement on 90 per cent of the issues, there was no consensus on the contentious issue of land.

In the original proposal floated by Trump, he had sought Ukraine to cede to Russia the entire Donbas region, which comprises Donetsk and Luhansk provinces—as demanded by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. But Zelenskyy has ruled out such a surrender. Instead, he has suggested freezing the battle lines in any settlement.

Trump is still leaning on Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the eastern Donetsk region, an official familiar with the matter told Reuters, in what would be a massive concession likely to provoke a ferocious backlash in Ukraine.

Though longstanding territorial issues remain, one official told Reuters that “we’ve got multiple different solutions to bridge the gap that we are suggesting to them”. Separately, a European source aware of the matter 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.