United States special envoy Steve Witkoff will meet with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders in Berlin this weekend, a White House official announced on Friday (12/12/2025), confirming a White House report Wall Street Journal.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz will host Zelensky and several European Union and NATO leaders amid intensive diplomatic efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Europeans and Ukrainians demanded “security guarantees” from the Americans ahead of territorial negotiations in eastern Ukraine occupied by Russian troops, the French presidency said on Friday.
Negotiations accelerated with the US government’s plan presented about three weeks ago to resolve the war triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
This plan contains some of Moscow’s most important demands. Kyiv provided a version of this text with counter-proposals. Ukraine’s president confirmed on Thursday that the US wanted to conclude a deal “as soon” as possible.
“The main thing is to know what territorial concessions Ukraine is prepared to make,” said Chancellor Merz in Berlin on Thursday.
For Zelensky, two key issues remain to be negotiated: control over the eastern Donetsk region, where fighting is taking place, and over the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
gs (afp, reuters)
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