Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to security guarantees for Ukraine, including a NATO-like defence agreement, in a major shift of Kremlin’s policy.
US Special envoy Steve Witkoff made the relevant concessions during an interview with CNN on Sunday, days after the high-level summit in Alaska. Commenting on US President Donald Trump’s summit with Putin in Alaska, Witkoff said the Russian leader made concessions over Ukraine’s security.
“We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article Five-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO,” Witkoff said. He added that it was the first time that the Russian leader agreed to this condition.
Under NATO’s Article5, “if a NATO Ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other 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 to assist the Ally attacked,” Witkoff reminded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed US involvement in provision of Ukraine’s security guarantee. “Security guarantees, as a result of our joint work, must really be very practical, delivering protection on land, in the air, and at sea, and must be developed with Europe’s participation,” he wrote in a post on X on Sunday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also welcomed the security guarantees for Ukraine, stressing that “European Union ... is ready to do its share,” according to Associated Press. Von der Leyen is among the European officials who released a joint statement on Saturday, calling for “ironclad” security guarantees for Ukraine and urging a trilateral meeting involving Zelenskiy. The European leaders said Kyiv should not be excluded from talks on ending the war with Russia.
Witkoff’s statement came days after Trump and Putin held hours-long closed-door meeting in Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. The summit did not yield any ceasefire agreement. US media reported on Saturday that Russia has offered ending the war in exchange of taking control of Ukraine’s Donbas region that along with Kherson and Zaporizhia region were annexed to Russia in sham elections held in 2022, months before Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine.
Zelenskiy will visit Washington on Monday for a meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office. UK prime minister Keir Starmer, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, Italy’s PM, Giorgia Meloni, and the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, will all accompany Zelenskiy in the Oval Office.