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Hindustan Times
11 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
NATO-like protection in focus for Trump meeting with Ukraine, Europe
By Trevor Hunnicutt and David Ljunggren NATO-like protection in focus for Trump meeting with Ukraine, Europe -U.S. President Donald Trump could offer NATO-like protection of Ukraine, and Russia is open to the idea, one of his top foreign policy officials said on Sunday ahead of a meeting with Ukraine and European leaders to hammer out details of possible security guarantees for Kyiv. "We were able to win the following concession, that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection," Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy to Russia, told CNN's "State of the Union" program. "The United States could offer Article 5 protection, which was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that." Witkoff was referring to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which regards any attack against one of its 32 members as an attack on all. He suggested that a security guarantee of that scale could be offered to Ukraine in lieu of NATO membership, which Putin has ruled out. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been gradually advancing for months in the deadliest war in Europe for 80 years, Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who were both in the room when Trump met Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, gave a series of TV interviews ahead of a Monday meeting in Washington with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and leaders of some European allies. 'We made some progress, we believe, and now we have to follow up on that progress," Rubio told CNN's "State of the Union" about the meeting with Putin. "Ultimately, where this should lead is to a meeting between the three leaders, between Zelenskiy, Putin and President Trump, where we can finalize, but we got to get this thing closer before we get to that point." Russian officials are opposed to Western troops in Ukraine, but have not ruled out a security guarantee for Kyiv. Speaking during a joint media appearance with Trump after their nearly three-hour long meeting, Putin said on Friday: "I agree with President Trump. He said today that Ukraine's security must be ensured by all means. Of course, we are ready to work on this." Witkoff told "Fox News Sunday" that Russia had also agreed to passing a law against taking any more of Ukraine by force. "The Russians agreed on enshrining legislatively language that would prevent them from - or that they would attest to not attempting to take any more land from Ukraine after a peace deal, where they would attest to not violating any European borders," he said. PEACE DEAL VS SURRENDER Any security guarantees offered to Zelenskiy could also include a commitment from the United States, Rubio told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures", an option that many of Trump's MAGA supporters have rejected up to now. "It would be a very big move by the president, if he were to offer a U.S. commitment to a security guarantee," Rubio said. "It tells you how badly he wants peace, how much he values peace, that he would be willing to make a concession like that ...That's what we'll talk about tomorrow." In a social media post, Trump wrote, "BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!" But he gave no details. Rubio said U.S. officials discussed security details for Ukraine with the national security advisers of multiple European countries on Saturday, adding that the aim would be to build in details that could ultimately be presented to Russia as part of a peace agreement. He told Fox News that the talks between Trump and Putin on Friday had narrowed the number of key issues, which include drawing borders and military alliances for Ukraine as well as security guarantees. "There's a lot of work that remains," Rubio added. According to sources, Trump and Putin discussed proposals for Russia to relinquish tiny pockets of occupied Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine ceding a swathe of fortified land in the east and freezing the front lines elsewhere. Rubio said Russia and Ukraine would not be able to get everything they want. 'If one side gets everything they want, that's not a peace deal. It's called surrender, and I don't think this is a war that's going to end anytime soon on the basis of surrender,' Rubio told CNN. In a separate interview on ABC, Rubio said if a deal could not be reached to end the war, existing U.S. sanctions on Russia would continue, and more could be added. When Zelenskiy visited the White House in February, the meeting ended in a shouting match. Rubio, speaking to CBS, dismissed the idea that the European leaders were coming to Washington to protect Zelenskiy. "They're not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskiy from being bullied. They're coming here tomorrow because we've been working with the Europeans," he said. "We invited them to come." This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
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First Post
11 minutes ago
- First Post
Putin briefs Belarus, Kazakhstan leaders on Trump summit, calls talks ‘useful' for Ukraine peace
President Vladimir Putin spoke to the leaders of Belarus and Kazakhstan on Sunday to update them on the summit with U.S. President Donald Trump which the Kremlin has cast as a potentially significant stepping stone towards peace in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday spoke with the leaders of Belarus and Kazakhstan to share details of his meeting with US President Donald Trump, which Moscow has described as an important step toward resolving the conflict in Ukraine. The Alaska summit, the first US-Russia meeting at this level in more than four years, was followed by consultations with senior Russian officials in the Kremlin on Saturday. Putin called the discussions 'timely and very useful,' saying both sides explored the possibility of ending the war on what he termed a 'fair basis' while addressing its underlying causes. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'We have not had direct negotiations of this kind at this level for a long time. I repeat once again: there was an opportunity to calmly and in detail once again set out our position,' Putin told Russian officials. 'We, of course, respect the position of the American administration, which sees the need for a speedy end to military action. Well, we would also like this and would like to move on to resolving all issues by peaceful means.' The press service of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Putin had discussed the talks in Alaska. 'Putin informed his Belarusian counterpart in detail about the results of the last Russia-US summit,' the Lukashenko's press service said. Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's press service said that Russia-U.S. talks 'contributed to a better understanding of the American side of the Russian position on Ukraine.'
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First Post
11 minutes ago
- First Post
Putin agrees to US-Europe plan for NATO-style security guarantees for Ukraine, says Trump envoy
Russia's Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with President Donald Trump to allow the United States and its European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO's collective defence mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1/2year war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed in principle to allow the United States and its European partners to extend Ukraine a form of collective security guarantee modelled on NATO's Article 5, according to U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff. Speaking on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, Witkoff described the concession as 'game-changing,' noting that this was the first time Moscow had accepted the possibility of such protections. 'We were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons Ukraine wants to be in NATO,' he said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Read Also: A non-NATO pact for Ukraine? US floats Western alliance-style security guarantees for Kyiv Article 5 of NATO stipulates that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all. While details remain scarce, the offer could provide a pathway around Putin's longstanding opposition to Ukraine joining the Western military alliance. Witkoff, who attended Friday's talks in Alaska alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also said Russia agreed to legislate against infringing the sovereignty of other European nations. 'There was plenty more,' he added, without giving specifics. Outlining some of the details about the private discussions, Witkoff also said Russia had agreed to enact a law that it would not 'go after any other European countries and violate their sovereignty. And there was plenty more.' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference in Brussels with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, applauded the move. 'We welcome President Trump's willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine and the 'Coalition of the willing' — including the European Union — is ready to do its share,' she said. Zelenskyy thanked the United States for recent signals that Washington was willing to support such guarantees, but that much was unclear. 'It is important that America agrees to work with Europe to provide security guarantees for Ukraine,' he said, 'But there are no details how it will work, and what America's role will be, Europe's role will be and what the EU can do, and this is our main task, we need security to work in practice like Article 5 of NATO, and we consider EU accession to be part of the security guarantees,' he said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Witkoff defended Trump's decision to abandon his push that Russian agree to an immediate ceasefire, which Trump had set as a benchmark going into the meeting. Witkoff said the Republican president had pivoted toward a peace deal because so much progress was made. 'We covered almost all the other issues necessary for a peace deal,' Witkoff said, without elaborating. 'We began to see some moderation in the way they're thinking about getting to a final peace deal.' Rubio, who appeared on three Sunday news shows, said there was not going to be any kind of truce reached because Ukraine was not at the summit. 'Now, ultimately, if there isn't a peace agreement, if there isn't an end of this war, the president's been clear, there are going to be consequences,' Rubio said on ABC's 'This Week.' 'But we're trying to avoid that.' Rubio, who is also Trump's national security adviser, said he did not believe imposing new U.S. sanctions on Russia would force Putin to accept a ceasefire. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'The minute you issue new sanctions, your ability to get them to the table, our ability to get them to table will be severely diminished,' Rubio told NBC's 'Meet the Press.' He also said 'we're not at the precipice of a peace agreement' and that getting there would not be easy and would take a lot of work. 'We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement, but there remains some big areas of disagreement. So we're still a long ways off,' Rubio said. Zelenskyy and Europeans leaders, who heard from Trump after the summit, are scheduled to meet with him at the White House on Monday. 'I think everybody agreed that we had made progress. Maybe not enough for a peace deal, but we are on the path for the first time,' Witkoff said. He added: 'The fundamental issue, which is some sort of land swap, which is obviously ultimately in the control of the Ukrainians — that could not have been discussed at this meeting' with Putin. 'We intend to discuss it on Monday. Hopefully we have some clarity on it and hopefully that ends up in a peace deal very, very soon." STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With inputs from agencies
