THE WASHINGTON POST: US ready to give Ukraine security guarantees when Trump meets Zelensky

US special envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday ahead of a planned meeting at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders, that President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to “robust security guarantees” during their summit in Alaska last week.

“The United States is potentially prepared to be able to give Article 5 security guarantees, but not from NATO - directly from the United States and other European countries,” Mr Witkoff said in a Fox News Sunday interview.

Under Article 5 of the NATO treaty, if a member country is attacked, each member of the alliance “will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary.” Ukraine is not a member of NATO but has been seeking support from allies since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

Mr Witkoff said the security guarantee deal would be further discussed among the United States, Mr Zelensky and European allies during the Monday afternoon meeting in Washington. European leaders will be joining that meeting to present a united front to help Mr Zelensky navigate what Ukrainians anticipate could be a high-stakes and potentially emotional meeting on which Ukraine’s future could hinge.

Separately, the US is hoping that a trilateral meeting with Mr Trump, Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky will take place this week, according to a White House official. The official, however, cautioned that the White House does not necessarily expect Monday’s meeting to result in that. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.

Working out the precise implementation of security guarantees is likely to be a lengthy process, which could allow Mr Putin to continue his war while details are finalised.

Mr Zelensky, speaking alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Sunday, said it was impossible to enter into negotiations with Moscow “under the pressure of weapons,” insisting, as before, that a full ceasefire must be in place before any discussions.

Mr Trump met with Putin in Anchorage on Friday, after which Mr Trump dropped his demand for a ceasefire, instead calling for a final peace deal. Mr Trump also told allies that Mr Putin wanted all of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as a condition for ending the war, including areas Russian soldiers have not managed to seize during years of fighting.

Mr Zelensky added that he was grateful for America’s apparent willingness to join in providing future security guarantees, but said more details need to be hammered out, such as what the United States’ role would be and what role European countries would play.

Ms Von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubb all confirmed Sunday that they will join Zelensky on Monday.

The decision by Europe’s top leaders to join Mr Zelensky at his White House meeting - a dramatic, high-profile gesture - underlines the importance of the conversation that will take place between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky, and the need to drastically change the trajectory of the peace negotiations.

While in Brussels, Mr Zelensky is also set to meet virtually with the “Coalition of the Willing,” a group of European allies planning to back any future settlement of the war, including with troops.

Ms Von der Leyen said European leaders welcomed “Trump’s willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine,” but said that Kyiv must receive enough weaponry so that it would become “a steel porcupine - undigestible for potential invaders.”

She also reiterated Europe’s position that international borders cannot be changed by force, and that only Ukraine had the right to make decisions concerning its territory.

On Sunday, Mr Witkoff noted that the Russians agreed that they would not try to take any additional land from Ukraine after any peace deal.

“They would attest to not violating any European borders. So we got through quite a bit and there’s a whole lot more,” Mr Witkoff added. He, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, flanked Mr Trump during a roughly three-hour discussion in Anchorage with Mr Putin and two of his senior advisers.

On Sunday, Mr Rubio also backed up Ukraine’s need to seek such guarantees. “Ukraine is a sovereign country. They have a right, like every sovereign country does in the world … to enter into security alliances with other countries to prevent an invasion in the future, to prevent threats to their national security,” Mr Rubio said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

He also added that both countries would have to give up some of their demands to get to a deal. “It will require both sides to make concessions. It will require both sides to get the things they’re asking for. That’s how these deals are made, whether we like it or not,” Mr Rubio said on CBS. “It’s just a fact, and there are things that maybe Russia is holding now that they’re going to have to give up.”

Mr Zelensky and his European backers have long called for a ceasefire instead of a final settlement, with European allies saying that Ukraine cannot negotiate while under attack.

But Mr Rubio, speaking to host Maria Bartiromo on Fox News, said Sunday that the Trump administration never promised that Friday’s summit with Mr Putin would result in a ceasefire deal. That meeting, he said, was the first of several steps before finalising any agreement.

Mr Rubio would not go into detail about what the US would like to see in a security guarantee, but said that it would be a “very big move” by Mr Trump if he offers a US commitment.

Mr Rubio raised the possibility that the United States could still toughen its stance against Russia if it doesn’t negotiate a peace deal.

“Look, if we’re not going to be able to reach an agreement here at any point, then there are going to be consequences - not only the consequences of the war continuing but the consequences of all those sanctions continuing, and potentially new sanctions on top of it as well,” Mr Rubio said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, stressing that negotiators have to first try for a peace deal.

Several members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have called for more support to Ukraine, and the Alaska summit has done little to dissuade them.

“Donald Trump got flattered by Vladimir Putin. But when it comes to Ukraine and our European allies, this was a setback,” Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) said on ABC’s This Week. He called on the Senate to move forward with bipartisan legislation to impose new sanctions on Russia.

Mr Zelensky will tread a fine line on Monday, experts and Ukrainian political figures said, having to take care not to anger Mr Trump while at the same time convincing him that his recent proposals for an end to the Ukraine-Russia war are unworkable.

Foremost in Ukrainians’ minds is avoiding a repetition of a contentious meeting in the Oval Office in February that included Vice President JD Vance. That dissolved into a shouting match and gravely damaged Kyiv’s position with its US ally. Mr Vance is expected to join the Monday meeting with Mr Zelensky, a Trump administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

This time around, Mr Vance’s posture might be more tactful than his tone in February. He is fresh off more than a week in Britain, where he engaged in friendly diplomacy in recent days with British and other European officials.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Mr Vance this month hosted a meeting at Mr Lammy’s country home with other European officials, including representatives from Ukraine, to strategise ahead of Mr Trump’s meeting with Mr Putin in Alaska.

European officials are still worried about the demeanour Mr Trump will present on Monday after the Anchorage meeting, widely seen as a public relations victory for Mr Putin, including a red-carpet welcome from Mr Trump.

One European official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said he was surprised that Mr Trump appeared to so easily drop the leverage he had against Mr Putin, especially considering the increasing pressure that the Russian economy is under because of inflation and sky-high interest rates, which have caused many Russian business leaders to warn of impending bankruptcies.

Mr Trump threatened to levy tough sanctions on Russia this month, but those plans did not materialise as Mr Trump and Mr Putin prepared to meet. Mr Trump had also threatened “severe consequences” if Mr Putin didn’t agree to a ceasefire during the Alaska summit, but backed off those demands.

But the fact that the summit meeting with Mr Putin had ended early, while the US leader stated in an interview after the summit that he could return to the question of imposing sanctions targeting Russia “in two or three weeks,” was a sign that Mr Putin had not been able to win over Mr Trump completely, the official said.

A Ukrainian official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said it would be impossible for Mr Zelensky to agree to any deal that would force ceding Donbas.

“We are not going to put 1 million Ukrainians into occupation,” the official said. “It’s unbelievable that it is even possible to propose anything like that in the modern world.”

“Unfortunately, there is such risk indeed” of a repeat of that scene from earlier this year, said Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at the government-linked Ukrainian National Institute for Strategic Studies. “It seems that Putin managed to build a case in Trump’s mind in Alaska that it’s Ukraine that should make major concessions for peace.”

Mr Zelensky needs to “strike a balance between being non-provocative in his defence of Ukraine national interests but still mindful of promoting those interests,” Mr Bielieskov said.

Having European leaders at the meeting would also “level the negotiating balance,” said Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kyiv-based think tank the Penta Centre for Applied Political Studies.

The European leaders can “look out for Zelensky and reduce the tension if necessary,” Associate Professor Fesenko said.

Ukraine and its European allies might find themselves, Fesenko said, “on what I call ‘the Trump roller coaster’ - first it goes in one direction, and then in another.”

“He took Putin’s side in Alaska, and before that, in July, he took our side. Now he needs to be returned to our side again, at least partially,” he said.

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