What Ukraine has to sign to get US security guarantees. A Washington source calls attention to a 'misguided' perception
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, during the discussion at the Vatican, before the funeral of Pope Francis Photo: Profimedia
The United States has told officials in Kiev that Ukraine must sign a peace deal with Russia in order to obtain security guarantees from the United States, a source familiar with the internal discussions told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday.
Security guarantees offered by the US are seen by Kiev as the key element of any deal to end Russia's four-year-old invasion of Ukraine.
The United States mediated talks in Abu Dhabi between representatives of Ukraine and Russia late last week, with American officials later saying the talks had made progress toward an agreement.
The Financial Times (FT) reported earlier on Tuesday that the Trump administration had signaled to Ukraine that security guarantees from the US depended on Kiev accepting a peace deal that would likely see the entire industrial Donbas province (Donetsk and Luhansk regions) ceded to Russia.
The United States wants something from Ukraine before giving it security guarantees: “They stop every time they are ready to sign”
But the source who spoke to the Reuters news agency said that the United States is not imposing the content of the peace agreement on Ukraine and that it is “erroneous” to suggest that Washington is trying to force Ukraine to make territorial concessions to Russia.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are due to meet again on Sunday, February 1, in Abu Dhabi, with possible participation of US officials. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner left last weekend's negotiations optimistic that a deal would soon be reached.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently stated that a US document on security guarantees for Ukraine is “100% ready” and that Kiev is currently waiting for the date and place of its signing.
Zelenskiy has consistently said that Ukraine's territorial integrity must be respected in any peace deal aimed at ending the war.
Ukraine is increasingly uncertain whether Washington will commit to providing security guarantees, a senior Ukrainian official told the FT, adding that the US was “stopping every time the agreement on security guarantees can be signed”.
The Kremlin said on Monday that the territorial issue remains central to any deal to end the fighting in Ukraine, the TASS news agency reported after talks in Abu Dhabi over the weekend.
