US dangles security guarantees for Ukraine but no deal on ‘painful’ territorial concessions

US dangles security guarantees for Ukraine but no deal on ‘painful’ territorial concessions

Decisions on potential territorial concessions can only be made by the people of Ukraine and once robust security guarantees are in place. That’s according to a joint statement from European leaders following talks in Berlin. They’ve also proposed a European-led multinational force with US support to enforce any potential peace deal. And in the last few minutes, Donald Trump said he’d spoken directly with Vladimir Putin and believed that an agreement was close. >> Happened should have never started. That war should have never ever started, but it did and we’re trying to get it solved. That was Biden’s situation. 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. We want to save a lot of lives. You know, we sell equipment to NATO. We don’t spend any money, but we do want to see if we can save a lot of lives. >> Well, for more, let’s cross live now to Washington where France 24’s Fraser Jackson is standing by for us. Fraser, we’ve been hearing from Donald Trump speaking to reporters in the last few minutes. At this point, what more do we know about these potential security guarantees for Ukraine? What is the latest? >> Well, we know that the two sticking points towards any peace deal have been these security guarantees and territory. Now, not much movement in terms of territory that is still being worked out. But a US official that I was on a phone call with earlier said about Ukraine’s defense under this deal, quote, “This is the most robust set of security protocols they have ever seen.” So what exactly is included? Well, we did get more detail that came out of that joint statement from the European leaders. They said, quote, both the US and European leaders committed to work together to provide robust security guarantees and economic recovery support measures for Ukraine in the context of an agreement on ending the war. Now, that would include commitments to one, help Ukraine build its army to 800,000 people. It’s also going to help develop a European-led multinational force Ukraine that will be supported by the US. The US also leading ceasefire monitoring and verification as well as deconliction mechanisms. Unclear what exactly they are at the moment, though. But perhaps the biggest achievement for Ukrainian and European negotiators is that they’ve got the US to agree to what one US official said is described as an article 5 like guarantee. Now the US official wouldn’t provide more context uh on what that would entail, but the European leader statement once again gives a bit more clarity saying that these measures may include armed force intelligence and logistical assistance as well as economic and diplomatic actions. Now during that call with the leader uh with the US official, the US official was asked whether there would be US boots on the ground uh and the one official uh said no before then backtracking. So it’s believed from that call from reading between the lines that the US has not agreed to send any US troops to be part of that multinational force but will be providing things like air defense uh and intelligence uh services for the Ukrainians and the rest of the coalition as well. Now, the other big movement really is that the deal calls to support Ukraine’s EU membership bid. The US officials said that Russia had signaled it would be okay with this. It’s never officially said it wasn’t okay with that. Not unlike its unlike its stance on Ukraine’s membership to NATO. But there are also components of this deal which again touch on the rebuilding of Ukraine, the economic side after the end of this war, including getting Russia to compensate Ukraine for the damage caused. Lastly though, the main thing really that everybody is looking at is the territory uh aspect of things. That is the last major hurdle. EU and US uh leaders say that that is for Ukraine to decide, but they also said that they’re going to help Silinski if he needs to call a referendum to ask the people of Ukraine about land concessions. >> And Fraser, does all of this suggest then that Washington is finally starting to shift the pressure from Ukraine to Russia? And what do we think is going to happen next? Well, it’s almost impossible to say. Donald Trump has vacasillated between blaming Ukraine, blaming Russia. He’s always been slightly softer on Russia than he has been on Ukraine. Just days ago, he was uh he was putting pressure on Vladimir Zalinski. There was reporting that he’d pressured the Ukrainians to sign this peace deal before Christmas, that he was upset with Zilinski for not reading this peace deal. Zilinsky, of course, said that he was waiting to be briefed on it by his negotiators and the Europeans before he did anything. Well, now all of that has changed. The signals uh now uh come from Russia that they will be okay with aspects of this deal, but whether they’ll be okay with the wider text now is what we’re all looking for and whether they will indeed sign this deal. Donald Trump says that he has spoken to Vladimir Putin recently. Whether he discussed this deal and the most up-to-date aspects that we are now learning about, we are unsure of. Uh but of course this again could be part of the United States’s uh part of public pressure campaign that they’ve been using to try to get the Russians to come to the table. But again whether that is going to get Russia to step back from its maximalist positions that he’s been taking uh that is what we now wait to see. >> Fraser for now thanks so much. That is our correspondent in Washington, Fraser

The European leaders in a joint statement at the Berlin talks proposed a force as part of US-backed “robust security guarantees” aimed at guaranteeing that Russia would not violate an agreement to end the war, which started with Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion. Zelensky said earlier that talks with Trump’s envoys were “not easy” but brought “progress” on the question of security guarantees. FRANCE 24’s Fraser Jackson reports from Washington.
#Ukraine #Russia #NATO

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