United States President Donald Trump said Monday that he believes “closer than ever” reach a peace agreement in Ukraine after US representatives met this weekend in Berlin with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European authorities to review the plan proposed by Washington to end the conflict.
“I think we’re closer than ever,” Trump said at a White House event, before explaining that he was maintaining today “a very good conversation” with several European leaders. The US president insisted he had “enormous support” from allies in Europe: “They also want this war to end.”
“At present, Russia wants it to end (the war), but the problem is that sometimes they want it and other times they don’t.and the same goes for Ukraine. We must therefore bring them into agreement. But I think the discussions are progressing very well,” he said.
President Trump’s statements come hours after, from Berlin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz highlighted notable progress in negotiations with the United States for peace in Ukraine, even though stressed that the territorial question continues to be the main point to be resolved at the negotiating table with Moscow.
“Now we have heard from the American side that they are ready to provide security guarantees equivalent to Article 5 of the NATO treaty and that is not bad at all, but for now it is only a first step,” Zelensky said at a news conference with Merz, who today convened a summit with many European and NATO leaders. Zelensky admitted that he “does not assume” that security guarantees imply Ukraine’s membership in NATO, reflecting the kyiv’s desire to renounce what constituted a red line for Moscow.
The sovereignty of Donbass, at the center of concerns
At the same time, the Ukrainian president acknowledged that his government continues to maintain a position different from that of Russia on the territorial question, refusing to cede the part of Donbass still in the hands of kyiv. Although he denied that Washington’s emissaries were pressuring him in this regard and expressed the hope that the American side, as a mediator, will propose measures to find some kind of consensus.
Merz also confirmed that the United States had offered Berlin some “truly remarkable” legal and material security guarantees, What constitutes “progress” is part of a diplomatic dynamic which, according to him, is perhaps the greatest seen since the start of the war. “It’s still a small, fragile factory, but the opportunity is real,” he said about the possibility of reaching a ceasefire in Ukraine, while recognizing that the question of territorial transfers claimed by Russia remains open and emphasizing that in this sense only Ukrainians can make a decision on the matter.
Washington offered kyiv “platinum-level” security guarantees during the two-day dialogue in the German capital, according to anonymous sources from senior US administration officials. Officials explained that the United States was offering Ukraine guarantees similar to those envisaged in NATO Article 5by which Member States undertake to consider any aggression against one of them as an attack against the Alliance as a whole.
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