Putin agrees that US and Europe will provide Ukraine NATO protection, says Trump's emissary

Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, agreed to the summit with President Trump to allow the US and his European allies to provide Ukraine with a security guarantee to NATO's collective defense mandate, as part of a possible end agreement for 3 and a half years of Ukraine, Steve said for CBS.

“We managed to obtain the following concession: that the United States could provide protection similar to Article 5, this being one of the real reasons for which Ukraine wants to be in NATO,” he told the show “State of the Union” of CNN. He added that “it was the first time I heard the Russians agreeing with this” and called it “revolutionaries”.

Article 5 stipulates that an armed attack against one or more members will be considered an attack on all members.

Witkoff, who joined the Secretary of State Marco Rubio during Friday's discussions, at a military base in Alaska, provided little about how such an agreement would work. But this seemed to be a major change for Putin and could serve as a solution to its long -term objection to the potential accession of Ukraine to NATO.

Singling a few details about private discussions, Witkoff also said that Russia has agreed to adopt a law that would not “attack other European countries and not violate their sovereignty. And there would be many more.”

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, talking at a press conference in Brussels with Ukrainian president Volodimir Zelenski, applauded the decision. “We welcome the availability of President Trump to contribute to security guarantees similar to Article 5 for Ukraine, and” the coalition of the disposed ” – including the European Union – is ready to contribute,” she said.

Zelenski thanked the United States for recent signals that Washington is willing to support such guarantees, but said many things are unclear.

“It is important for America to agree to collaborate with Europe to provide security guarantees,” he said. “But there are no details about how this will work and what will be the role of America, the role of Europe and what the EU can do, and this is our main task, we need security to work in practice, such as Article 5 in NATO, and we believe that accession to the EU is part of security guarantees.”

Witkoff defended Mr. Trump's decision to give up his efforts for Russia to accept an immediate armistice, which the president had established as a reference point before the meeting. Witkoff said that the President Republican was oriented towards a peace agreement because so many progress has been made.

“We have addressed almost all the other aspects needed for a peace agreement,” Witkoff said, without giving more details. “We started to observe some moderation in the way they are thinking of reaching a final peace agreement.”

Rubio told the show “Face The Nation with Margaret Brennan” that he does not believe that imposing new American sanctions against Russia would force Putin to accept an armistice.

“If he did this now, when the president imposes those additional sanctions, then the discussions will end,” Rubio said. “We want to reach a peace agreement to put an end to this war, so that Ukraine can continue its life and rebuild its country, having the guarantee that this will never happen again. This is the goal.”

Rubio said that Kiev “will have to accept things, but he will have to receive things.”

“For example, Ukraine is a sovereign country. It has the right, like any sovereign country in the world, to conclude security alliances with other countries to prevent an invasion in the future, to prevent threats to their national security,” Rubio said. “It is not an unreasonable request. It is an aspect to work.”

Zelenski and European leaders, who received discussions from Mr. Trump after the summit is about to meet him at the White House on Monday.

“I do not say that we are on the verge of a peace agreement, but I say we have seen movement, enough move to justify a subsequent meeting with Zelenski and Europeans, enough movement to dedicate this more time,” Rubio said.