NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct U.S. assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. (AP video by Lefteris Pitarakis, Derek Gatopoulos, Theodora Tongas)
NATO tests new deployment model without US ahead of Ukraine war anniversary
NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct U.S. assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. (AP video by Lefteris Pitarakis, Derek Gatopoulos, Theodora Tongas)
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Politico
28 minutes ago
- Politico
Witkoff claims Trump-Putin meeting victory, says "Article 5-like" security on the table for Ukraine
He continued, saying, 'We got to an agreement that the United States and other European nations could effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee.' Trump spent much of the week ahead of the Alaska meeting issuing threats over what could happen if Russia wasn't serious about a ceasefire. In the end, Trump's confab with Putin, in which the U.S. president feted his Russian counterpart with a red carpet and clapped as he approached, didn't even result in concrete plans for a follow-up meeting. Still, Witkoff is optimistic. 'We're on the path for the first time,' he told Tapper. 'We are seeing accommodation more than we've seen in the past, certainly more than we saw in the last administration. And that's encouraging. Now we have to build on that.' Zelenskyy will travel to Washington — alongside a number of major European leaders — to meet with Trump on Monday. The president has warmed to the idea of playing at least some role in maintaining peace and deterring future Russian invasions into Ukraine after the war, telling European leaders in a virtual meeting last week that he was open to contributing security guarantees to Kyiv in a final settlement. Trump's foreign policy has long been marked by skepticism of NATO allies. He previously balked at the idea of coming to the defense of a NATO country 'if they don't pay,' signaling he would consider abandoning a key part of the NATO security pact if members don't spend more on defense. 'There are numerous definitions of Article 5,' Trump told reporters en route to the NATO summit in June. Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence told Tapper that Witkoff's description of the security guarantees floated during the meeting was 'encouraging.' But he cautioned the White House to 'remember the bad guy here is Putin' throughout its conversations on ending the war. 'I served alongside the president for four years. I know his style in dealing with these dictators,' Pence said. 'It's the velvet glove. But I think the hammer needs to come and it needs to come immediately.'
Newsweek
28 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Ukraine Responds to Putin's Reported Demands to Trump
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. It would be "totally unacceptable" for Kyiv to give up its eastern regions for a peace deal, a senior Ukrainian politician has said, as Ukrainian officials prepare to meet President Donald Trump and European leaders in Washington on Monday. Reuters reported on Sunday that Russia had said it would offer slivers of land it currently controls in Ukraine in exchange for Kyiv ceding chunks of land in the east that Russia does not currently control, citing sources briefed on the Kremlin's thinking. Under the proposal, Ukraine would fully withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk, with the current front lines in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to the south frozen in place, according to the report. For Ukraine, it is politically and militarily off the table to consent to losing the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Oleksandr Merezhko, the chair of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign affairs committee and a member of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's party, previously told Newsweek. President Donald Trump greets Russian President Vladimir Putin as he arrives at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on August 15, 2025, in Anchorage, Alaska. President Donald Trump greets Russian President Vladimir Putin as he arrives at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on August 15, 2025, in Anchorage, Kremlin declared in fall 2022 that Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were now part of Russia after referendums widely condemned as a sham. Russia had seized Crimea, to the south of the mainland, from Ukraine in 2014. Moscow does not control all of the four mainland Ukrainian regions, but has long focused on asserting its grip on Donetsk and Luhansk. They are collectively known as the Donbas, and form much of Ukraine's industrial heartland. The current proposal is a "provocation" from the Kremlin chief, and one to which Ukraine can never agree, Merezhko said. Kyiv has repeatedly said it is against the country's constitution to give land away to Moscow. The Russian and Ukrainian positions on what the Kremlin would control in any ceasefire agreement or peace deal have always been far apart, and there is little hint that this has changed on either side. But what may have shifted is President Donald Trump's patience to entertain steadfast Russian demands. The Republican had in recent months expressed increasing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but said off the back of the two leaders' first meeting of Trump's second term that the summit was "useful." No deal was announced, and Trump pivoted his position on a ceasefire, saying he would move straight to a permanent peace deal. Zelensky said on Saturday Russia's refusal to sign a ceasefire "complicates the situation." Russia is not in a position to seize Donetsk through military means, and, for Ukraine, the region has huge strategic importance, Merezhko said. Close to three-and-years of full-scale war has seen Russia gain control of large areas of Luhansk and Donetsk, but much of the latter still remains in Ukrainian control. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank that tracks the daily changes to the front lines in the conflict, said earlier this month Ukraine still controls roughly 6,500 square kilometers of territory in Donetsk—equivalent to a quarter of the region. Russia's slow but steady gains, concentrated in Donetsk, have come at an eyewatering human cost, according to Ukrainian and Western assessments. Crucially, west of the front lines, in Ukrainian-held Donetsk, are several cities known as "fortress settlements" that are vital to Ukraine's defenses. The region is a "bulwark" for Ukraine to shield its other regions, Merezhko said. After the Anchorage summit, Trump told European leaders that he backed a plan in which Ukraine would cede territory it still controlled to Russia, The New York Times reported, citing two senior European officials. Several European leaders will travel to participate in Zelensky's meeting at the White House on Monday, including British Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Putin agreed to let US, Europe offer NATO-style security protections for Ukraine, Trump envoy says
NEW YORK (AP) — Special U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with President Donald Trump to allow the U.S. and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO's collective defense mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1/2-year war. '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 why Ukraine wants to be in NATO," he said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' He added that it "was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that.' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference in Brussels with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that "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.' Witkoff, offering some of the first details of what was discussed at Friday's summit in Alaska, said the two sides agreeing to 'robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing." He added that Russia said that it would make a legislative commitment not to go after any additional territory in Ukraine. Zelenskyy thanked the United States for recent signals that Washington is willing to support security guarantees for Ukraine, but said the details remained 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.' Witkoff defended Trump's decision to abandon his push for Russian to agree to an immediate ceasefire, saying the 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,' he said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted there would be 'additional consequences' as Trump warned before meeting with Putin, if they failed to reach a ceasefire. But Rubio noted that there wasn't going to be any sort of deal on a truce reached when Ukraine wasn't at the talks. '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. And the way we're trying to avoid those consequences is with an even better consequence, which is peace, the end of hostilities.' Rubio, who is also Trump's national security adviser, said he did not believe issuing new sanctions on Russia would force Putin to accept a ceasefire, noting that the latter isn't off the table but that 'the best way to end this conflict is through a full peace deal.' '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 said on 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 are scheduled to meet Monday with Trump at the White House. They heard from the president after his meeting with Putin. '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.'
