US envoy says Putin agreed to protections for Ukraine as part of Trump summit
'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.
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Mr Witkoff said it was the first time he had heard Mr Putin agree to that.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference in Brussels with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, 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'.
White House envoy Steve Witkoff (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)
Mr Witkoff, offering some of the first details of what was discussed at Friday's summit in Alaska, said the two sides agreed 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.
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Mr Zelensky 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.'
Mr Witkoff defended Mr 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.
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'We covered almost all the other issues necessary for a peace deal,' Mr 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.
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With so much to lose, and amid such a febrile political environment, as their president goes to face Trump in Washington, few Ukrainians have found reassurance in what followed the Alaska summit, with briefings alluding to security guarantees for Ukraine in the style of Nato's all-for-one 'Article 5' outside the Nato alliance. 'Do we really expect nuclear armed western nations to respond aggressively against Russia in the case of further attacks upon Ukraine, if we are not actually a member of Nato?' concluded Merezhko. 'We don't think so. 'We just hope that the European leaders can keep Trump focussed on the key issues when he sees Zelensky in Washington,' he concluded. 'Without European pressure Trump seems to wander off towards Russia, like a line in that song by Frank Sinatra, 'my fickle friend the summer wind'.'
