Ukraine and its European allies have told the US that a ceasefire and clarity on security guarantees for Kyiv should precede any peace deal with Russia that involves negotiations about territory, according to people familiar with the matter.
Ahead of a meeting in London Wednesday, the officials sought further detail from Washington on the sequencing of its proposal to stop the fighting in Ukraine and to bring an end to Russia’s full-scale invasion, currently into its fourth year. It’s the latest attempt to influence the talks that had left Europe under pressure as Washington pushes for a deal with Vladimir Putin and tries to exert tough conditions on Kyiv.
While they are keen to work in support of the US plan, Ukraine and European states want assurances that Russia is willing to agree to a ceasefire to provide space to negotiate a final peace agreement, the people said. They also want to be sure Moscow is willing to accept an agreement that would include security guarantees from Ukraine’s Western partners, which would allow Kyiv to retain an adequately manned and equipped army, they added speaking on condition of anonymity.
Trump warned last week that he would walk away from efforts to end the war if a deal can’t be reached soon. Europeans have grown alarmed that in the rush to halt the fighting the odds may increasingly be stacked against Kyiv. While Ukraine has said it is ready to agree to an unconditional ceasefire, Russia’s preference is for negotiations to focus on the final terms and conditions of an agreement. Moscow has also driven a hard bargain in any truce talks and had been accused by Kyiv of breaking a partial, 30-day ceasefire that recently lapsed.
The chief of staff of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Andriy Yermak, said in a Telegram post after the talks in London ended that Kyiv remained committed to Trump’s peace efforts and regular consultations will continue. A “full and unconditional ceasefire” would be a first step toward a “full-fledged settlement process and achieving a just and sustainable peace,” he said in an earlier post ahead of the meetings on Wednesday.
In a worrying development for Kyiv, the talks in London between top officials from the US, Ukraine and major European powers were downgraded to technical-level meetings after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio postponed his visit. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, who was also expected to participate, will instead travel to Moscow this week after visiting Putin three times already since the inauguration.
Still, the US needs Europeans on board to lift sanctions on Russia as changing the bloc’s restrictions requires the backing of all member states.
At a meeting in Paris last week, US officials presented Europe and Ukraine with a new proposal to end the war that would effectively freeze the conflict largely along existing battle lines, Bloomberg previously reported. The US is also willing to accept Russia’s occupation of Crimea, which is internationally recognized as Ukrainian territory, and to ease sanctions on Moscow as part of any potential deal.
Freezing the conflict would be a far greater sacrifice for Ukraine, which has sought to regain all territory in the country’s east and south seized by Russia since 2014, including Crimea, and following the full-scale invasion that began in February 2022. Any potential deal will have to include “some territorial swaps” and the border may not wind up reflecting the front lines as they stand now, Vice President JD Vance said in India on Wednesday, adding that the US has issued a “very explicit proposal” to Russia and Ukraine.
Russia welcomes the US “mediation efforts,” though many details of a settlement still need to be discussed and work is continuing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, according to the state-run Tass news service. While there are no contacts now with Ukraine or Europe, Putin is open to them in the interests of reaching a settlement, Peskov said.
With assistance from Akayla Gardner.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
