Putin agreed to NATO-style US security guarantees for Ukraine at Alaska summit, Witkoff says
'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.'
The compromised, which emerged from Trump's Alaska summit with the Russian strongman, 'was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that,' he said.
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3 Special envoy Steve Witkoff explained that President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin addressed many of the key sticking points outside of territorial concerns.
CNN
The arrangement Witkoff laid out would involve countries, including European allies and the US, agreeing to defend Ukraine if it is attacked in the future.
NATO's Article 5 stipulates that an attack on one member should be treated as an attack on all — resulting in a collective defense.
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One of Putin's longtime grievances cited in the invasion of Ukraine was the country's ambition of joining the EU and NATO to defend itself from Russian attacks.
A security guarantee to guard against future Russian attacks appears to be a key piece of the peace deal that Trump is pursuing.
However, Putin suggested China — a Kremlin ally — could be one of the security guarantors, Axios reported.
'Putin has said that a red flag is NATO admission,' he added. 'We were discussing was assuming that that held, assuming that the Ukrainians could agree to that, and could live with.'
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3 President Trump met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Friday in Alaska.
REUTERS
Back in 1994, Russia, the US, the UK and others agreed to the 'Budapest Memorandum' with Ukraine, making security guarantees in exchange for Kyiv giving up its Soviet nuclear weapons.
Witkoff also defended Trump's apparent pivot away from pursuing a ceasefire in Ukraine, arguing that a full-fledged peace deal would end the war 'quicker.'
The special envoy, who sat in on Trump's meeting with Putin on Friday, contended that the details that would need to be negotiated for a ceasefire are very similar to the ones that would have to be hashed out for a peace deal.
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'We made so much progress at this meeting with regard to all the other ingredients necessary for a peace deal that President Trump pivoted to that,' Witkoff said
'We are intent on trying to hammer out a peace deal that ends the fighting permanently, very, very quickly. Quicker than a ceasefire.'
When pressed by CNN anchor Jake Tapper about whether a peace deal can actually be negotiated faster than a cease-fire, Witkoff argued that 'the thesis of a ceasefire is that you'd be discussing all of these issues that we resolved in Alaska.'
'We cut through all kinds of issues that would be that would have to be discussed and agreed to during a cease-fire period,' he said.
Ahead of his face-to-face with Putin, Trump told Fox News that he 'won't be happy' if Putin didn't agree to a cease-fire.
Despite Putin failing to agree to a ceasefire, Trump left the meeting touting significant 'progress,' without delving into specifics.
3 Steve Witkoff has been President Trump's top emissary to Vladimir Putin.
AFP via Getty Images
Witkoff, whose meeting with Putin earlier this month led to the summit with Trump in Alaska on Friday, stressed that 'the Russians made some concessions at the table with regard to all five' of the disputed so-called oblast territories.
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But he declined to specify what concessions Russia made. Notably, Ukraine considers Crimea to be a disputed oblast.
Putin made clear that Russians wanted Ukraine to turn over the rest of the minerals-rich Donetsk, a historically Russian-speaking region, The Post previously reported.
The Russians have an estimated three-quarters of Donetsk, which has been described as a 'fortress belt,' but have struggled to push further amid heavy fortifications from Ukraine.
In exchange for Ukraine ceding all of Donetsk — including the parts it still controls — Russia offered to freeze its battle lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where it has made very little progress over recent months, Axios reported.
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Experts fear that if Kyiv turns over Donetsk and its critical defensive lines there, the Russians could later cut deeper into Ukraine in the future.
Witkoff declined to confirm whether that was the actually deal Putin offered Trump during their meeting in Alaska, and he stressed that the US president can't make territorial concessions on Ukraine's behalf.
'We were there as a mediator, so we were obviously advancing the Ukrainian view. The one thing that the president cannot agree to on behalf of the Ukrainians is any sort of land swap,' Witkoff said.
'That is for the Ukrainians … the President is respectful of it,' he added. 'That being said, we covered almost all the other issues necessary for a peace deal.'
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Trump publicly said that there was a big issue that didn't get resolved, but didn't specify what it was.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet with Trump in the White House on Monday.
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