US Offers Security Guarantees to Ukraine, But There is No Deal on Territory Concession

JAKARTA - The United States (US) offered security guarantees ala the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to Ukraine, as US and European negotiators reported progress in talks to end the war with Russia on Monday, but an agreement on territorial concessions has not yet been reached.

The envoys sent by US President Donald Trump made an unprecedented offer in talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin, US officials said, but warned such offers would not last forever.

Talks in the German capital have sparked optimism from European leaders about a path to ending the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two.

However, Moscow has not agreed to any of the changes discussed in Germany and has not shown any willingness to do so.

"We're trying to get it done," President Trump said of the deal to end the war, speaking at the White House after calling in to a dinner involving key officials in Berlin, Reuters reported (16/12).

The talks in Berlin were attended by, among others, US Envoy Steve Witkoff, President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Fridrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

"We've had a lot of conversations with President Putin of Russia, and I think we're closer now than we've ever been and we'll see what we can do," he added.

The United States is also pressing Ukraine to withdraw its troops from eastern Donetsk region, said an official familiar with the matter, which would be a major concession that could trigger a strong reaction in Ukraine.

Calling the issue of territorial concessions "painful", President Zelensky then told reporters: "Frankly, we still have different positions."

But he said he believed US mediators would help find a compromise.

Kyiv's negotiators will continue consultations with their US counterparts, he said, adding that Ukraine needs concrete understanding of security guarantees, including monitoring of the ceasefire, before making any decisions on the war front.

"I don't think that (the US) has demanded anything," President Zelensky said.

"I see us as strategic partners, so I would say that we have heard about territorial issues related to Russia's vision or Russia's demands from (the US). We see this as a demand from the Russian Federation," he said.

Meanwhile, US officials told reporters via a telephone conference that they had reached an agreement on 90 percent of the issues.

Although the long-standing territorial issues remain, one of them said, "we have some different solutions to bridge the gap that we suggest to them."

Ukraine has previously said it would not hand over territory to Russia, which has seized nearly 20 percent of the country's territory in the east and south since its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A European source briefed on the latest talks said Russia had not budged on its territorial demands.

"The atmosphere is good but the goal is still quite different in essence," he said.

A US official later told reporters that, based on the agreement being discussed in Berlin, Ukraine would receive security guarantees similar to those set out in Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which requires the alliance to defend any member that is attacked.

Other US officials said Russia was open to Ukraine joining the European Union and that President Trump wanted to prevent Russia from further expanding its influence westward in Europe.

An official said security assurances, including deconfliction and oversight of any deal, were the main focus of Monday's talks and that assurances such as Article 5 were something Trump believed Moscow could accept.

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The working group is expected to meet in the US over the coming weekend, possibly in Miami, one of the officials said.

"Are we ready to go to Russia if necessary? Of course," the official added.

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 US after negotiations in Berlin.

The talks on Monday come at the start of a crucial week for Europe, with an EU summit on Thursday to decide whether they can guarantee a massive loan to Ukraine with frozen Russian central bank assets.