Ukraine, US resume Berlin talks on peace plan and security guarantees

Key topics:Ukraine-US peace talks resume in Berlin, focusing on security guaranteesTerritory disputes and ceasefire lines clash with Russian demandsNATO membership sidelined as bilateral defense guarantees are explored.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Bloomberg News.Ukraine and the US are due to hold a second day of talks in Berlin on a plan aimed at ending Russia’s war, with allied security guarantees for Kyiv a central focus of the negotiations. About 10 European leaders are also expected to attend a summit on Monday together with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his team held more than five hours of talks at Germany’s Federal Chancellery on Sunday with US officials led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. The sides discussed Ukraine’s territory as the US is backing a Russian demand for Kyiv to withdraw from areas of its eastern Donetsk region that Moscow’s forces have failed to seize since 2014, a person familiar with the matter said. Zelenskiy repeatedly rejected the demand and together with European allies is insisting on a ceasefire along the current line of contact, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive issues. The Ukrainian president signalled that Kyiv could step back from its long-term goal of joining NATO if it reached bilateral security agreements with the US, European and other states, potentially including Canada and Japan. Those agreements would function similarly to NATO’s Article 5 mutual-defence commitment to prevent “another coming of Russian aggression,” Zelenskiy told reporters on Sunday.“Russia has to know we will stand on Ukraine’s side,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday. “We need to work toward a solution that’s sustainable for the future.”.The US delegation said in a statement that a lot of progress had been made, with in-depth discussions on the 20-point peace plan, economic agendas and other matters.Ukraine has sought to join NATO for years as a way to protect its independence, though the US and some European states have been unwilling to back its membership in the face of Russian hostility. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly demanded that Ukraine abandon its goal of NATO membership as part of any peace deal. The Trump administration has already ruled out support for Ukrainian entry into the defence alliance.Russia isn’t present at the Berlin talks and Putin has shown no sign of pulling back from his maximalist demands in Ukraine, including on territory. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov made clear that Russia is unlikely to accept changes advanced by Europe and Ukraine to the US-led proposals that have been largely favourable to Moscow. Witkoff and Kushner held five hours of talks with Putin in Moscow on the plan on Dec. 2.“If relevant amendments are made, we will have very strong objections, because we had outlined our position very clearly and the US seemed to have understood it,” Ushakov said in pre-recorded remarks to state television broadcast on Sunday. “There will be provisions which are completely unacceptable for us, including on territorial issues.”European Union foreign ministers also plan talks on Ukraine at their meeting in Brussels on Monday. The bloc’s foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas acknowledged to reporters that efforts to reach agreement on a reparations loan to Ukraine backed by frozen Russian state assets are growing increasingly difficult.The Bank of Russia filed a lawsuit in Moscow seeking 18.2 trillion rubles ($229 billion) from Euroclear, the state-run Tass news service reported Monday.Kallas said that if NATO membership was out of the question for Ukraine “then we need to see what are the security guarantees that are tangible.” “They can’t be papers or promises, they have to be real troops, real capabilities so that Ukraine is able to defend itself,” Kallas said. “We have to understand that Donbas is not Putin’s endgame.”.© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Ukraine, US resume Berlin talks on peace plan and security guarantees

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