US offers ‘NATO-like’ security to Ukraine, expects Russia to accept • FRANCE 24 English

underway. The leaders of France, the UK, and NATO are joining German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zilinski, and US envoys. Zilinski said real progress had been made, welcoming new security guarantees offered by Washington. That’s after anonymous US officials told reporters that they expect Russia to accept those security guarantees, framing it as a possible breakthrough. Zilinski spoke to the press a couple of hours ago. Listen in now. There was enough dialogue regarding territory and it seems to me that for now we have different positions. I’ll say it frankly. However, I think that my colleagues heard my personal position and I’m very glad that I was able to convey it. But everyone is ready to work productively. >> Let’s bring in our correspondent Guliver Craig who’s standing by in Kev. Thanks for joining us Guliver. So is it possible to read kind of cautious positivity from the various sides in Berlin? Is that what you’re seeing in seeing with these diplomatic talks as well? >> Well, we certainly see everybody trying to sound positive. The Ukrainians of course are trying to be as diplomatic as possible and not give the Americans any excuse to blame them for spoiling the talks. But you did hear Vladimir Zilinski there saying that they still disagreed about the key question of territory. What does sound positive is this talk of security guarantees. The Ukrainians are saying that they want article 5 style security guarantees from the United States. That means as per NATO’s article 5, if there was another attack on Ukraine, if Russia reiged on the terms of a ceasefire or peace agreement, then NATO or the United States, maybe it would be just bilateral between Ukraine and the United States, but either way, in the same way as with the NATO article 5, the United States would be expected to respond militarily. The Ukrainians have said that they want this to be voted by Congress in the United States. They’re not going to take Donald Trump’s word for it. Donald Trump has apparently according to CNN been saying that he is prepared to put that kind of security guarantee to a vote in Congress, but he said that he’s not going to wait forever. And Vladimir Zalinski did tamp dampen down a little bit the expectations on that by saying that although they’re working in very military terms and on the details of what these security guarantees would look like, it’s still very much a work in progress and until it’s all set in stone, um, we can’t, you know, say that it’s really there. And what he also said, and this is perhaps the most important point, Vadimir Zalinski said that he did not know whether the Russians would accept the kind of proposals that they’ve been working on the Ukrainians and their European and American allies. The reality is that the Russians have given every indication that they will not accept them. Yuri Ushakov, uh, Vladimir Putin’s adviser as recently as yesterday said that if the proposals have been changed and watered down, then then it’s going to be a no-go for us. >> Yeah. And one of the sticking points there as you mentioned was the territory question. The Donbass, Russia wants Ukraine to seed land in the Donbass. Just explain that part for us. So I saw this very um well explained by a Ukrainian military commander on one of the Ukrainian media sites uh today. He said, “If you remember the battle for Avdka in Donbass, it was a town that was basically the front line between 2014 and 2022. The Russians started their onslaught, the full-scale invasion in 2022. It took two years before they managed to take that town, which is right near Donetsk City. And the Ukrainian forces defending that town had holed up in the co uh coing plant there, which is a huge sprawling uh factory.” And what he said this military commander is in crits there are 10 factories of that size. These factories provide huge defensive um facilities. They’ve got underground uh bunkers. They’re massive. They’ve got really thick walls. They are great strongholds. And Crmaturk, which is a major industrial city in the Donbass, one of the two cities there, two main cities that Ukraine still holds. They crit and Slavans. Cremators in particular and to a lesser degree also Slovians are strongholds because they’ve got all of this industrial territory and that’s why from a military point of view leaving aside the situation of civilians there and leaving aside the principle of the thing which is also of course very important but from a strictly military point of view unless the Ukrainians are absolutely sure that the Russians are going to be prevented from moving a step forward they think it would be crazy to give up uh these physical strongholds. >> Got a crack there in Kiev. Thank you as always. Now moving.

The U.S. 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, U.S. officials said Monday following the latest discussions with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin. FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg reports from Kyiv.
#Ukraine #Russia #war

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40 comments

  2. we all know who's side trump wants to win. Putin is his biggest idol He rolls out the red carpet for him while when zelesky comes he gets yelled out and thrown out of the white house and just a couple weeks ago he said "Zelensky can accept this or he can fight his little heart out"
    he and the white house love Russia and hate Ukraine.
    now we only need to get them to understand that the entire world is watching.
    the only reason he isn't giving up on NATO/EU/Ukraine is because he think about legacy.

  3. Didn't Russia already told you like 100 times they will not accept nato troops in Ukraine? You already know they will reject so what kind of proposal are you offering other than to make sure real peace doesn't come?

  4. “Not one inch eastward”,, 1990 promises of NATO military by US president to Mikhail Gorbachev, (Document at George Washington University ),14 time Made + Violent , Expanding from 13 to 32 state to Russia doorstep,, Reality of war in Ukraine,, 143 million Russian, European 741 million GDP bigger than 10 times,, Russian need EU as business partner not enemies,, Stay away from Ukraine for Peace 🙏

  5. I am lost here! Russia claims that one of the reasons behind invading Ukraine is to stop nato's expansion. And now we will give Ukraine nato-like guarantees to stop the war!? How Will Russia accept it?
    my guess is that this is just another plot to sabotage trumps peace deal from EU and I think it will work! but the outcome is sealed anyway for UA!

  6. Is this "security guarantee" like the promise when Ukraine was talked into giving up their nuclear weapons ? Ha ha ha 😂

  12. Ukrainian neo-Nazis, with money and guns from USA/Germany etc., were killing ethnic Russians in Donbass. Russia will kill the Ukrainian neo-Nazis and neuter Ukraine. USA is full of Latinos. France is full of Jihadis… Russia and China do not have these detriments.

  13. Correct ukraine USA security guarantees art. 5 if putin russia will broke the deals as he always broke precoius many peace deal thats russia that they not always honor it. These security deals for ukraine it should be approved by USA congress not by just a word of trump.

  14. It’s basically asking to upgrade from NATO to be a straight up ally of the US. If Russia refused NATO, then why would they accept something worse?

  18. I personally wouldn't trust anything the US promises after the way they have acted during this conflict, and I wouldn't trust Trump as far as I could spit.

  19. At this stage Russia would unlikely to agree even to Ukraine's EU accession. This is what happens when war escalates!! 😂😂😂

  22. Europe really wants the war to continue. They know Russia wont accept their terms yet they give them. I guess the fight continues to the last Ukranian….

  25. ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️
    You can use your Türkiye nato member and support Ukraine all you want !!
    ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️

  40. 🗿Russia is hellbound to take ukraine anyways ! Be it through US or by war. The only scary thing is that Russia will certainly not stop over Ukraine he has huge plans ahead for GREATER RUSSIA!! And Nukes & Hypersonics , election meddling are is brute strengths!!

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