US offers Ukraine security guarantee but territory still key

U.S. negotiators offered more significant security guarantees to Kyiv as part of President Donald Trump’s renewed push to end the Russia-Ukraine war, but the effort still appeared part of a bid to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on territory.

The Trump administration offered to provide Ukraine with strong “Article 5-like” security guarantees — a reference to NATO’s mutual defense clause — as part of the current deal to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict, a U.S. official told reporters, without providing any details.

Later Monday, Trump said a negotiated end to the war was “closer than” ever and that the United States was working with Europe on security guarantees. But then he appeared to suggest Ukraine ought to give up land as part of the deal.

“They’ve already lost the territory, to be honest,” Trump said at the White House. “Things are seemingly going well. But we’ve been saying that for a long time, and it’s a difficult one.”

Trump’s comments came after he spoke to a gathering of European leaders Monday hosted by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and also attended by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Merz called the U.S. offer of security guarantees “remarkable” and said reaching a peace deal by Christmas “now depends entirely on the Russian side.”

“An agreement has been reached that a ceasefire should be secured by substantial legal and material security guarantees from the U.S. and Europe,” Merz said after the talks. “This is a truly far-reaching and substantial agreement, which we did not have before.”

The comments were part of a generally upbeat assessment from senior officials gathered for the talks in Berlin. Working-group level discussions may continue this coming weekend in the United States, possibly Miami, the site of previous discussions, the U.S. official said.

Zelenskyy’s top security official, Rustem Umerov, cited “real progress” after the Ukrainian leader and his team held a second day of discussions lasting about five hours with U.S. officials led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.

On Monday evening, European leaders released a declaration outlining a framework agreement in which EU officials “committed” to security guarantees including a multinational force from within the European coalition supported by the U.S. that would help secure Ukraine, a U.S.-led “ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism,” and Ukraine maintaining a peace-time army of 800,000 troops — well above a cap that Russia had wanted.

The document — signed by countries including Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland and France — also foresees a “legally binding commitment” to help restore peace in case of a future attack as well as future investment to rebuild the war-battered country, as well as support for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.

As the Trump administration tries to lean on Ukraine, it was unclear whether the new U.S. effort would be able to overcome the hurdles that have halted previous rounds of talks. Russian leader Vladimir Putin hasn’t budged from his maximalist demands about seizing a vast swathe of territory, including areas of the eastern Donbas region he’s been unable to capture. Kyiv, which was attacked by Russian forces in February 2022, has refused to cede land.

The U.S. official said Trump was not trying to pressure Ukraine, but added that they had provided Zelenskyy with some “thought provoking” ideas about land. Moscow was not included in this phase of the talks, which came after a pro-Russia proposal drafted by Washington and Moscow enraged Ukrainian and European officials.

Even as he lauded the progress on guarantees, Zelenskyy made clear the positions between Moscow and Kyiv when it comes to territory lie far apart. He urged the U.S. to continue mediating on the “painful” issue. The Ukrainian leader also said that many “destructive” elements in the first draft of the Witkoff plan had been removed.

“We’re making efforts to make our position clear,” Zelenskyy said.

The Americans and Ukrainians discussed territorial issues, with the U.S. backing a Russian demand for Kyiv to withdraw from areas of its eastern Donetsk region that Moscow’s forces have failed to seize since 2014, a person familiar with the matter said.

Zelenskyy repeatedly rejected the demand and — together with European allies — is insisting on a ceasefire along the current line of contact, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive issues.

The Ukrainian president signaled on Sunday that Kyiv could step back from its long-term goal of joining NATO if it reached bilateral security agreements with the U.S. and others.

Ukraine’s Umerov lauded Witkoff and Kushner for “working extremely constructively” for peace — and said the Ukrainians were “enormously grateful” to Trump.

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov has made clear Russia is unlikely to accept changes advanced by Europe and Ukraine to U.S.-led proposals that have been favorable to Moscow. Witkoff and Kushner held five hours of talks with Putin in Moscow on the plan on Dec. 2.

“If relevant amendments are made, we will have very strong objections,” Ushakov said in pre-recorded remarks to state television broadcast on Sunday. “There will be provisions which are completely unacceptable for us, including on territorial issues.”

European Union foreign ministers also plan talks on Ukraine at their meeting in Brussels on Monday. Meanwhile, the new chief of Britain’s foreign intelligence service MI6 accused Putin of deliberately prolonging negotiations to put an end to the war.

“We all continue to face the menace of an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia,” Blaise Metreweli said in her first public appearance as head of MI6. She said of Putin: “He is dragging out negotiations and shifting the cost of war onto his own population.”

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(With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska, Arne Delfs, Alberto Nardelli, Courtney Subramanian and Justin Sink.)